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Data Privacy Scandals and Public Policy Picking Up Speed: 2018 in Review 2018 may be remembered as the Year of the Facebook Scandal, and rightly so. The Cambridge Analytica fiasco , Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony , a massive hack , and revelations of corporate smear campaigns were only the tip of the iceberg . But many more companies mishandled consumer privacy in 2018, too. From the Strava heatmap exposing military locations in January to the gigantic Marriot hack discovered in November, companies across Silicon Valley and beyond made big mistakes with consumer data this year—and lawmakers and the public have taken notice. Tech Companies Putting Their Profits Before Your Privacy The problem that came into focus in 2018 was not just hacks , breaches , or unauthorized bad guys breaking into systems. Instead, 2018’s worst privacy actors were the tech companies themselves, harvesting of mountains of users’ data and employing flawed systems to use and sha

Wrangling With Monopolies: 2018 in Review This year has brought numerous stories of large Internet companies using their dominance of key Internet functions in ways that harm users and shut out competitors. From Google’s treatment of competing search companies in its results, to Facebook’s playing favorites with its developer APIs, to AT&T and Comcast’s ongoing quest to charge websites for the privilege of reaching you, monopoly power and its abuses are on vivid display. Worse, unlike in previous technology cycles, the dominance of these companies has proven to be sticky. The world has taken notice, with voices from across the political spectrum calling for new approaches. Market concentration and monopoly power in the online world have always shaped EFF’s work. This year, we’ve begun to tackle competition issues head-on. One focus is the legal doctrine that deals directly with problems of monopoly power—antitrust law. This year, we’ve given comment and testimony to the Fe

Data Privacy Scandals and Public Policy Picking Up Speed: 2018 in Review 2018 may be remembered as the Year of the Facebook Scandal, and rightly so. The Cambridge Analytica fiasco , Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony , a massive hack , and revelations of corporate smear campaigns were only the tip of the iceberg . But many more companies mishandled consumer privacy in 2018, too. From the Strava heatmap exposing military locations in January to the gigantic Marriot hack discovered in November, companies across Silicon Valley and beyond made big mistakes with consumer data this year—and lawmakers and the public have taken notice. Tech Companies Putting Their Profits Before Your Privacy The problem that came into focus in 2018 was not just hacks , breaches , or unauthorized bad guys breaking into systems. Instead, 2018’s worst privacy actors were the tech companies themselves, harvesting of mountains of users’ data and employing flawed systems to use and sha

Wrangling With Monopolies: 2018 in Review This year has brought numerous stories of large Internet companies using their dominance of key Internet functions in ways that harm users and shut out competitors. From Google’s treatment of competing search companies in its results, to Facebook’s playing favorites with its developer APIs, to AT&T and Comcast’s ongoing quest to charge websites for the privilege of reaching you, monopoly power and its abuses are on vivid display. Worse, unlike in previous technology cycles, the dominance of these companies has proven to be sticky. The world has taken notice, with voices from across the political spectrum calling for new approaches. Market concentration and monopoly power in the online world have always shaped EFF’s work. This year, we’ve begun to tackle competition issues head-on. One focus is the legal doctrine that deals directly with problems of monopoly power—antitrust law. This year, we’ve given comment and testimony to the Fe

From Encrypting the Web to Encrypting the Net: 2018 Year in Review We saw 2017 tip the scales for HTTPS . In 2018, web encryption continues to improve. EFF has begun to shift its focus towards email security, and the security community is shifting its focus towards further hardening TLS, the protocol that drives encryption on the Internet. By default, all Internet traffic is unencrypted and subject to tampering, including HTTP. A technology called TLS (Transport Layer Security) can provide authenticated encryption and message integrity so no one can mess with or listen in on your Internet traffic. Since 2010 , EFF has been actively campaigning to encrypt the entire web —that is, for websites to adopt HTTPS, which is TLS added to HTTP. Due to the success we’ve seen on web, EFF is zooming out and tracking encryption of the entire Internet, starting with email. Let’s take a closer look at what has happened this year in encrypting not just the web, but the entire Internet! Contin

Congress Censors the Internet, But EFF Continues to Fight FOSTA: 2018 in Review EFF fought FOSTA in 2018. We fought the bill in Congress and, when the president signed it into law, immediately set our sights on challenging it in court. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865 ) was ostensibly passed to fight sex trafficking. The reality, however, is that the law makes sex trafficking victims less safe while also criminalizing the protected speech of those who advocate for, and provide resources to, adult consensual sex workers. It’s the broadest Internet censorship law in more than two decades . Numerous free speech organizations raised concerns about the bill. So did a litany of sex trafficking experts, who pointed out that it would directly put trafficking victims in more danger. From the time that FOSTA was introduced in Congress (along with its sibling bill SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act), tens of thousands of you wrot

From Encrypting the Web to Encrypting the Net: 2018 Year in Review We saw 2017 tip the scales for HTTPS . In 2018, web encryption continues to improve. EFF has begun to shift its focus towards email security, and the security community is shifting its focus towards further hardening TLS, the protocol that drives encryption on the Internet. By default, all Internet traffic is unencrypted and subject to tampering, including HTTP. A technology called TLS (Transport Layer Security) can provide authenticated encryption and message integrity so no one can mess with or listen in on your Internet traffic. Since 2010 , EFF has been actively campaigning to encrypt the entire web —that is, for websites to adopt HTTPS, which is TLS added to HTTP. Due to the success we’ve seen on web, EFF is zooming out and tracking encryption of the entire Internet, starting with email. Let’s take a closer look at what has happened this year in encrypting not just the web, but the entire Internet! Contin

Congress Censors the Internet, But EFF Continues to Fight FOSTA: 2018 in Review EFF fought FOSTA in 2018. We fought the bill in Congress and, when the president signed it into law, immediately set our sights on challenging it in court. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865 ) was ostensibly passed to fight sex trafficking. The reality, however, is that the law makes sex trafficking victims less safe while also criminalizing the protected speech of those who advocate for, and provide resources to, adult consensual sex workers. It’s the broadest Internet censorship law in more than two decades . Numerous free speech organizations raised concerns about the bill. So did a litany of sex trafficking experts, who pointed out that it would directly put trafficking victims in more danger. From the time that FOSTA was introduced in Congress (along with its sibling bill SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act), tens of thousands of you wrot

The Year of the GDPR: 2018’s Most Famous Privacy Regulation in Review To the extent that 260-page regulations can ever be said to be “famous,” Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) certainly had its moment in limelight in 2018. When it came into force on May 25, it was heralded by a flurry of emails from tech companies, desperate to re-establish their absolutely bona-fide relationships with your email address before the regulations’ stricter rules around user consent came into force. The barely-concealed panic in some corners led to editorials , memes , and even a meditation app that marketed itself (presumably in compliance with the GDPR) by offering to lull its users to sleep with spoken excerpts from the law. Did the GDPR live up to the year’s hype, good or bad? As Premier Zhou Enlai didn’t quite say about the French Revolution, it’s too early to say. There are plenty of ways that the GDPR can help with defending privacy online , but the real proof of the GDPR’

Pushing Back Against Backdoors: 2018 Year in Review This wasn’t a great year for those of us whose job it is to defend the use of encryption. In the United States, we heard law enforcement officials go on about the same “ going dark ” problem they’ve been citing since the late 90s, but even after all these years, they still can’t get basic facts straight. The National Academy of Sciences was entirely (and unsurprisingly) unhelpful. And in the courts, there was at least some action surrounding encryption, but we don’t know exactly what. The real movement happened on the other side of the Pacific, so we’ll start there.  The Land Down Under—Or the Upside Down? Long-time readers of this blog will know Australia’s fraught history with attempts to regulate encryption…and math. In mid-2017, then- Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull  said: “The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.” He made this laughable claim in the co

The Year of the GDPR: 2018’s Most Famous Privacy Regulation in Review To the extent that 260-page regulations can ever be said to be “famous,” Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) certainly had its moment in limelight in 2018. When it came into force on May 25, it was heralded by a flurry of emails from tech companies, desperate to re-establish their absolutely bona-fide relationships with your email address before the regulations’ stricter rules around user consent came into force. The barely-concealed panic in some corners led to editorials , memes , and even a meditation app that marketed itself (presumably in compliance with the GDPR) by offering to lull its users to sleep with spoken excerpts from the law. Did the GDPR live up to the year’s hype, good or bad? As Premier Zhou Enlai didn’t quite say about the French Revolution, it’s too early to say. There are plenty of ways that the GDPR can help with defending privacy online , but the real proof of the GDPR’

Pushing Back Against Backdoors: 2018 Year in Review This wasn’t a great year for those of us whose job it is to defend the use of encryption. In the United States, we heard law enforcement officials go on about the same “ going dark ” problem they’ve been citing since the late 90s, but even after all these years, they still can’t get basic facts straight. The National Academy of Sciences was entirely (and unsurprisingly) unhelpful. And in the courts, there was at least some action surrounding encryption, but we don’t know exactly what. The real movement happened on the other side of the Pacific, so we’ll start there.  The Land Down Under—Or the Upside Down? Long-time readers of this blog will know Australia’s fraught history with attempts to regulate encryption…and math. In mid-2017, then- Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull  said: “The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.” He made this laughable claim in the co