Notices by Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff@mastodon.social), page 54

“This bill would fail to protect us from the many threats to our digital privacy posed by criminals, private companies, & foreign actors,” EFF’s @davidgreene told @Vox. We need a comprehensive data privacy law, not bans of certain categories of apps.
https://www.vox.com/politics/24094839/tiktok-ban-bill-congress-pass-biden

To truly divest from Big Tech, you’d probably need to “move into the mountains and live off the grid,” EFF’s @falsemirror told The Hustle. But you could at least try a diet - a sort of digital veganism. https://thehustle.co/originals/i-tried-a-big-tech-diet-it-didnt-go-well

Secret police may conjure images of Soviet-era totalitarian regimes or dystopian fiction. But a Virginia police agency is leaning into that theme hard by refusing to disclose the names of its officers in response to a public records request.

In Pennsylvania, a judge issued a ruling full of allusions to banned books in finding that a school district had "effectuated a cover-up" of the removal of books from library shelves. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#literary

When police search people’s homes without knocking, it creates dangers for residents and the cops. Which is why it’s crucial the public know when and why police might deploy this tactic. Mississippi’s justice courts, however, can’t be bothered to make even basic details about these raids public. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#blindfold

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita aggressively promoted his opposition to gender-affirming care in the media, but when American Oversight requested the documentation behind his claims, Rokita claimed opinions and speculation were exempt from disclosure.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#rokita

Los Angeles police bungled their own release of officers’ photos, blamed a journalist and anti-policing group for disclosing them, and then sued the groups to try to erase the images from the internet. It’s about as unconstitutional and futile as it sounds. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024#lapd

It's Sunshine Week, and that means it's time for The #Foilies! Each year EFF and Muckrock compile the previous year's worst and weirdest responses to public records requests.

We hope this year’s “awards” for the absolute worst in government transparency enrage you, and that you channel that rage into filing your own public records requests. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/foilies-2024

Starting soon! Austin and those in town for SXSW, you're invited to join EFA member @effaustin at Open Austin's Open Data Day Austin! Sat, March 9 at 12:30pm https://www.eff.org/event/eff-austin-open-data-day-wopen-austin

March 9th and 10th mark the anniversary of historic Supreme Court decisions that protect speakers seeking to challenge oppression. Learn more in our blog from 2019: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/inextricable-link-between-modern-free-speech-law-and-civil-rights-movement

Here are 16 ways to celebrate #internationalwomensday—

1. Four Reasons to Protect the Internet this International Women’s Day: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-reasons-protect-internet-international-womens-day

2. Four Infosec Tools for Resistance this International Women’s Day: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-infosec-tools-resistance-international-womens-day

3. Four Voices You Should Hear this International Women’s Day https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-voices-you-should-hear-international-womens-day

4. Four Actions You Can Take To Protect Digital Rights this International Women’s Day: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/four-actions-you-can-take-protect-digital-rights-international-womens-day

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Palantir's NHS-stealing Big Lie; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/

#Pluralistic

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It seems SFPD didn’t learn much after San Francisco had to pay a $369,000 settlement in 2020 to a journalist whose home cops raided, EFF’s @davidgreene told the San Francisco Chronicle. Now EFF has helped @indybay fight off an unlawful search warrant & gag order. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/indybay-vandalism-post-sf-police-warrant-18710165.php

Ghana’s virulently anti-LGBTQ+ “family values” bill — packed with online censorship measures — could effectively ban big brands like Rihanna, FIFA, Guinness, Marvel, and Nike, EFF’s Daly Barnett, Paige Collings, and Dave Maass write for AllAfrica. https://allafrica.com/stories/202403080425.html

A big loophole and a lack of audits “makes it much harder for someone to challenge when a deployer is saying that the AI system is exempt from the law,” EFF’s Hayley Tsukayama told The Record of Workday’s model legislation. https://therecord.media/human-resources-artificial-intelligence-state-legislation-workday

EFF has helped the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (commonly known as @indybay) fight off an unlawful search warrant and gag order served by the San Francisco Police Department - a victory for press freedom. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/victory-eff-helps-resist-unlawful-warrant-and-gag-order-issued-independent-news

We recently had a chance to talk with free speech luminary Nadine Strossen, who tells us the importance of free speech as a right for everyone. Read the full interview and others at https://eff.org/speaking-freely

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) threatens not only young people’s rights but also the rights of all internet users, EFF’s @jgkelley explains to Connecticut Public. https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2024-03-06/opponent-explains-view-that-kids-online-safety-act-misses-the-mark

“AI won’t pick a CEO. It might filter applicants for mgmt and it may have the final say on hiring a gig worker,” EFF’s @falsemirror told @guardian. “Automated hiring will have an outsized impact on marginalized folks who rely on more precarious lines of work.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/06/ai-interviews-job-applications

It’s here! Signal finally gets the long-requested username feature, making it possible to share your contact info without giving out your phone number. We've updated our SSD guide with directions to set it up. https://ssd.eff.org/module/how-to-use-signal

“You can't sort of make these cosmetic changes around the edges of what is fundamentally an age-verification scheme that is completely at odds with the First Amendment,” EFF’s @aaronmackey told Florida's WUSF Public Media. https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-03-05/critics-say-floridas-proposed-social-media-ban-for-children-is-unconstitutional