Top Features
This week, the European Parliament will hold a final vote on the Copyright Directive, which contains two divisive clauses—Articles 11 and 13—that will mandate the imposition of link taxes and copyright filters. These censorious, anti-news clauses have sparked a global outcry, including a petition with more than 5 million signatures, street protests in several countries, and a blackout of several Wikipedia websites, as well as German OpenStreetMap and many more sites. If you live in Europe, call your MEP now! It’s the last chance to fight this terrible proposal.
News reports indicate that the NSA has stopped operating its massive surveillance program that collects Americans’ telephone records. Last week, we told Congress that it’s time to end the telephone records program for good. But lawmakers should do more than that—it’s time to investigate all the uses of Section 215, the law used to conduct telephone surveillance.
Our last version of EFFector incorrectly stated that EFF’s "Fix It Already" project is calling for WhatsApp to stop "pre-installing spyware." EFF’s criticism of spyware involves Verizon, not WhatsApp. EFF is calling for WhatsApp to get consent before adding users to groups. We regret the error, which has been corrected in the online version of EFFector.
EFF Updates
Automated license plate readers can photograph up to 1,800 license plates every minute. One major commercial database advertises that it contains 6.5 billion plates. Such massive stores of data on where people drive inevitably contains sensitive data about where people travel. Last week, EFF filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that when police search these databases, they should get a warrant—just as would be required for GPS or cell site location information.
How to protect consumer privacy online has become a hot debate this year, both in the states and in Congress. There are finally signs that Congress has stopped listening to just the big tech companies. At a Senate Judiciary hearing this week, representatives from Mapbox and DuckDuckGo explained how they are able to run successful businesses while still respecting user privacy. More than one senator indicated that strong state laws, like California’s Consumer Privacy Act, shouldn’t be watered down—any federal privacy law should be a floor, not a ceiling.
Hiperderecho, the leading digital rights organization in Peru, has launched its second ¿Quien Defiende Tus Datos? (Who Defends Your Data?), in collaboration with EFF. Five out of Peru's six ISPs now publish detailed policies on how they collect and process personal data. There's still room for improvement, especially when it comes to user notifications and making a public commitment to privacy.
Announcements
On April 18th, join us for our third annual celebration of fascinating, obscure, and trivial minutiae of digital security, online rights, and Internet culture. It’s the ultimate technology quiz crafted by EFF experts and hosted by our very own CyberTiger Cooper Quintin.
Doors are at 6:00pm, and the quiz begins promptly at 7:00pm at San Francisco's Public Works. Space is limited, so register now!
Many thanks to Facebook and Gandi.net for being our first 2019 sponsors! There's still time to sponsor EFF’s Third Annual Tech Trivia Night. If you or your company want to learn more, please contact Nicole Puller.
EFF Special Consultant Cory Doctorow is a Special Guest at the 2019 WonderCon, the Anaheim Comic-Con, which runs from March 29 to March 31. Cory will be on a multiple panels related to his work with EFF.
At 9:00am on April 24th, EFF Special Consultant Cory Doctorow will deliver a keynote address at Halifax's AltSecCon, "Atlantic Canada's Non-Profit, Annual Information Security Conference."
On April 26-28, EFF will be part of LinuxFest Northwest, a free community event for people of all technical skill levels. Stop by our table in the expo hall to talk about digital rights issues, or sign up to become a member. The event will take place at Bellingham Technical College.
On May 4th, EFF Tech Projects Director Dr. Jeremy Gillula will participate on a panel discussing the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on free speech at Stanford University. A detailed agenda for the AI and Human Rights Symposium will be posted at a later time.
Job Openings
EFF is looking for a litigator with an unshakeable sense of justice to join our legal team. For this position, we're looking for someone with strong interest in some combination of the following issues: privacy, free speech, freedom of information, and legal issues relevant to security research.
The ideal candidate for this position will have at least 3 years of litigation experience, though some qualified candidates may have more, or substantially more.
EFF is accepting applications for this position until March 25, 2019.
EFF seeks to hire a litigator who is excited about fostering digital creativity, justice, and innovation. Ideal candidates for this position will have substantial experience in copyright, patent, and/or trademark litigation. Experience with, or strong interest in, unfair competition, administrative law, privacy and/or First Amendment litigation is preferred but not required.
EFF is accepting applications for this position until March 25, 2019.
We're looking for a full-time Staff Technologist to work with our Browser Extensions team as a developer for Privacy Badger. This is one of our efforts to protect users’ privacy online and block tracking.
This is a full-time position in EFF's San Francisco office, not a remote position. Qualified applicants should know, or be able to learn, JavaScript (specifically ES6), browser add-on development, how tracking on the web works (e.g. cookies and fingerprinting), and how to manage a large, active open source community or project.
MiniLinks
Saudi Arabia has begun 11 trials against activists, most of them prominent women's rights advocates who have been detained without charges for 10 months. Authorities have leveled accusations like “suspicious contact with foreign parties.” Foreign diplomats and journalists have been barred from entering the courtroom to observe the hearings. Among those on trial is Eman Al-Nafjan, a professor of linguistics known for her bilingual blog "Saudi Woman." Al-Nafjan has been on EFF's list of offline bloggers since she was arrested in May 2018 for filming a female driver. (Human Rights Watch)
Los Angeles Department of Transportation is scheduled to start enforcing data-sharing rules next month, requiring that scooter firms provide real-time location data of their scooters. Location information, especially aggregated over time, is extremely sensitive—and residents may not even be aware that it's being collected. (Motherboard)
AT&T renamed a large portion of its 4G network, calling it "5G E." A study by OpenSignal found that AT&T's "5G E" service is actually slightly slower than Verizon's and T-Mobile's advanced 4G LTE networks. (Ars Technica)
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