EFFector

No one should have to think twice before posting a meme criticizing the government. But a mass surveillance program known as "Catch and Revoke" was created to make millions do just that.

With the launch of iOS 27, Apple is rolling out a variety of new AI features to its familiar voice assistant, Siri. But how are AI tools like these handling our data? And what can we do to make sure our private information stays private?

Around the country and across the political spectrum, people are pushing back against Flock cameras. But what comes next? And how can we make sure that today's backlash leads to lasting change?

Your location isn't just a pin on a map. Once collected, this information can expose some of the most intimate details about your life. A new EFF report highlights how location data is harvested from apps on our phones—potentially without app developers themselves even realizing it.

Watches, bands, and rings—if you want to digitally monitor your fitness, more companies than ever are selling devices to do it. And more Americans than ever now own at least one wearable health device. But what are the companies that make fitness trackers doing to protect our sensitive data from prying eyes? A lot less than they could be, it turns out.

The effort to age gate the internet is back in Washington—and now it has a new name. Recently passed by the House of Representatives, the KIDS Act is a sprawling package of proposals to control what we can see and say online.

Section 702 is the law has let intelligence agencies spy on millions of Americans’ private conversations without a warrant. Despite years of revelations about this law's misuse, Congress has repeatedly reauthorized Section 702 without meaningful reform. Until this month, that is.

Across the country, surveillance companies have spun a vast web of tens of thousands of license plate cameras. The people selling this tech want you to believe that it's for your safety, but how are authorities really using license plate readers?

When it comes to keeping our texts, chats, and other digital messages safe from prying eyes, we have a powerful tool: end-to-end encryption. Used correctly, end-to-end encryption turns our conversations online into secret messages that can only be decoded by their intended recipients. This month marks an important step forward for encrypted messaging—as well as a notable disappointment.

We'd all like the internet to be a better place—for kids and adults alike. But in the name of online safety, governments around the world are racing to impose a dangerous new system of control.

When we use the internet, we're entrusting tech companies with some of our most private information. These companies have promised they'll keep our data safe. But what happens when the government comes knocking at their doors?

All across the country, police have convinced communities to pay for mass surveillance systems like license plate readers, claiming they will help stop the most serious crimes. But once these ever-watchful electronic eyes are installed in your city, it's not just violent criminals they're recording—it's everyone.

Thanks to smartphones, almost everybody these days is carrying a little video camera around in their pocket, all the time. But the next time a stranger films you in public, you might not be able to tell they're recording at all. In fact, their camera might look just like an ordinary pair of glasses.

We've all had the unsettling experience of seeing an ad online that reveals just how much advertisers know about our lives. You're right to be disturbed. Those very same online ad systems have been used by the government to warrantlessly track peoples' locations, new reporting has confirmed.

The digital world isn't just a place you visit on your phone. It's the battleground where tomorrow's civil liberties will be won—or lost. Each episode of the EFFector podcast will fill you in on the most important news in digital rights, highlighting key developments in the fight for a world where technology supports freedom, not tyranny.