First Circuit Upholds First Amendment Right to Secretly Audio Record the Police
By Sophia Cope and Adam Schwartz EFF applauds the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for holding that the First Amendment protects individuals…
Adam Schwartz
So-called “Consent Searches” Harm Our Digital Rights
By Adam Schwartz Imagine this scenario: You’re driving home. Police pull you over, allegedly for a traffic violation. After you provide your license and registration,…
COVID-19 and Surveillance Tech: Year in Review 2020
By Adam Schwartz Location tracking apps. Spyware to enforce quarantine. Immunity passports. Throughout 2020, governments around the world deployed invasive surveillance technologies to contain the…
Clearview’s Faceprinting is Not Sheltered from Biometric Privacy Litigation by the First Amendment
By Adam Schwartz and Andrew Crocker Clearview AI extracts faceprints from billions of people, without their consent, and uses these faceprints to offer a service…
Maine Broadband Privacy Law Passes Early First Amendment Test
By Adam Schwartz, Andrew Crocker, and Kit Walsh When you send an email or browse the web, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may track what…
You Have a First Amendment Right to Record the Police
By Sophia Cope and Adam Schwartz Like the rest of the world, we are horrified by the videos of George Floyd’s murder. Once again, police…
Governments Haven’t Shown Location Surveillance Would Help Contain COVID-19
By Adam Schwartz and Andrew Crocker Governments around the world are demanding new dragnet location surveillance powers to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. But before the…
Facebook is Changing Its Face Recognition Settings. We Have Questions.
By Jennifer Lynch and Adam Schwartz Yesterday Facebook announced it was changing its settings for face recognition, which it has used since 2010 to match…
Ninth Circuit Goes a Step Further to Protect Privacy in Border Device Searches
By Sophia Cope and Adam Schwartz The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a new ruling in U.S. v. Cano [.pdf] that…
Victory! Lawsuit May Proceed Against Facebook’s Biometric Surveillance
By Adam Schwartz Biometric surveillance by companies against consumers is a growing menace to our privacy, freedom of expression, and civil rights. Fortunately, a federal…
The FTC-Facebook Settlement Does Too Little to Protect Your Privacy
By Adam Schwartz EFF is disappointed by the terms of the settlement agreement announced today between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Facebook. It is…
Governments Must Face the Facts about Face Surveillance, and Stop Using It
By Hayley Tsukayama and Adam Schwartz It’s time for governments to confront the harmful consequences of using facial recognition technology as an instrument of surveillance….
Victory! Illinois Supreme Court Protects Biometric Privacy
By Jennifer Lynch and Adam Schwartz The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that when companies collect biometric data like fingerprints or face prints without…