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EFF at 36c3 (Chaos Communications Congress) Find EFF in Leipzig at the 36th year of one of the largest technology, security, and activism conferences in the world, Chaos Communication Congress . Learn how our team of lawyers, technologists, and activists are working to protect online rights, and connect with the larger international digital freedom community. We’ll be part of the About:Freedom Assembly  in the Rights & Freedoms Cluster, floor 0 in the CCL building, just after exiting the tube from the central Glass Hall, alongside other groups protecting freedom of expression and human rights around the world.  EFF’s Schedule Day 1 (Friday, 27 December) 14:00 – 16:00 EFF Booth Office Hours, about:freedom Come by the EFF booth in the about:freedom assembly to say hello, get or renew your EFF membership or ask about EFF’s work. Day 2 (Saturday, 28 December) 14:00 – 16:00 EFF Booth Office Hours, about:freedom 20:00-20:30 in Lectu...

America Is Still in Desperate Need for a Fiber Broadband for Everyone Plan: Year in Review 2019 Earlier this year, EFF noted that the United States is facing a high-speed broadband access crisis . For the foreseeable future, it appears that a supermajority of Americans will not have access to fiber to the home. Instead, it is cable monopolies or nothing at all. Government data indicates that this problem is particularly pronounced in low-income neighborhoods and rural markets . But this future is not set in stone. We support efforts to aggressively meet this challenge so that this generation can benefit from affordable, universally accessible, competitive high-speed broadband access.  This year we have worked hard to unwind much of the damage the incumbent telecom industry cause through laws they’ve pushed over the last decade. We also conducted and published research to educate policymakers . For example, we have shared our most recent findings that fiber is so vastly sup...

Dodging Bullets on the Path to a Decentralized Future: 2019 in Review The Internet’s decentralized nature has historically been its greatest super-power, granting it the ability to shrug off censors and spies and redistribute power away from corruptible gatekeepers out to the creators and innovators on its edges. But it’s only been in the last few years that the Net’s own corporate children—Google, Amazon, Facebook, and the rest—have started to defeat that innate ability to re-route around such choke-holds. In response, a movement to re-decentralize the Internet has sprung up online: networks of volunteers, communities, and small independent businesses working to develop new tools, and new ways of organizing online that might build a more resilient and equitable network. At its worst, it seemed like politicians, aiming their own shaky weapons at Big Tech, ended up shooting straight at this vulnerable new generation of replacements At its best, 2019 felt at times the point when...

Ed Jarvis, Thought Leadership Manager for Power Systems, grew up in Minnesota and Colorado. “A writer at heart,” he loves traveling the world with his wife. He joined Schneider through an acquisition of the company he was working for in 2011. Since that day, Ed stayed with the company but left the U.S. to make a home in France. Natalia Pachón: How has your career evolved since the day you joined the company? Ed Jarvis: I was working for a much smaller company that was acquired by Schneider Electric. I began there as a Technical Writer on a product development team that made software for utility companies. Shortly after the acquisition, Schneider’s leadership team visited us in Fort Collins, Colorado. They had a series of interesting messages to share, including that within this multinational organization, “all things were possible,” including a strong internal mobility program. This was music to my ears because as much as I treasure the Colorado lifestyle, my wife and I love travel...

Investigative Scoops Worth Rereading: Year in Review 2018 In an era where political and corporate leaders are attacking the free press as “the enemy of the people,” it’s crucial that we recognize the truth: journalists every day are uncovering stories that protect our rights and hold those in power accountable. Meanwhile, as the media landscape shrinks, non-profits are also stepping in to carry the load. Here are some of the investigative bombshells that we read, re-read, and shared this year. (And a big thank you to our friends and supporters on Twitter who helped us remember all the great scoops from 2018.)    Give Me My Data Engadget reporters undertook a massive task to find out who controls your online data: A team of nine Engadget reporters in London, Paris, New York and San Francisco filed more than 150 subject access requests—in other words, requests for personal data—to more than 30 popular tech companies, ranging from social networks to dating apps to stream...

EFF’s New Logo: 2018 Year in Review 2018 marked the launch of EFF’s new logo , nicknamed “Insider”—the first new logo we’ve had since EFF’s founding in 1990! The logo is the result of approximately a year of development. In 2017, EFF received a generous offer of a pro bono logo and identity design from Pentagram , a major design firm fronted by an amazing designer named Michael Bierut . Bierut was inspired to make this offer by our work defending a blogger against bogus take-down orders. Having had only one logo for over 20 years, and knowing the excellent work that has made Pentagram a giant of the design world, we were more than thrilled. This logo is actually a kind of logo system—it can be reconfigured in various ways. It can stack horizontally, vertically, into a neat “L” shape, and expand to include artwork and other text. For our small design team, it’s been a pleasure to work, and a huge improvement over the old logo. Check out this video to see the logo in action: %3...

Protecting Immigrants from High Tech Surveillance: 2017 in Review In 2017, the federal government surged its high tech snooping on immigrants and foreign visitors, including expanded use of social media surveillance, biometric screening, and data mining. In response, EFF ramped up its advocacy for the digital rights of immigrants.  Social Media Surveillance  EFF resisted government programs to collect, store, and analyze the publicly available social media information of immigrants and visitors. These programs threaten the digital expression and privacy of immigrants, and the many U.S. citizens who communicate with them. Collection. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) empowered its border officers to screen the social media information of certain visa applicants from China . Likewise, the State Department empowered its consular officials to gather this information from visa applicants worldwide. The DHS Secretary even floated the idea of requiring visitors to sh...

A Grim Year for Imprisoned Technologists: 2017 In Review The world is taking an increasingly dim view of the misuses of technology and those who made their names (and fortunes) from them. In 2017, Silicon Valley companies were caught up in a ongoing trainwreck of scandals: biased algorithms, propaganda botnets, and extremist online organizing have dominated the media’s headlines. But in less-reported-on corners of the world, concerns about technology are being warped to hurt innocent coders, writers and human rights defenders. Since its founding , EFF has highlighted and defended cases of injustice and fearmongering perpetrated against innocent technologists. We advocate for unjustly imprisoned technologists and bloggers with our Offline project . In 2017, we continue to see fear being whipped up against those who oppose oppression with modern tools—as well as those who have done nothing more than teach and share technology so that we can all use and understand it better. Take Dm...