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In our 724th issue:
A new bill is working its way through Congress that could be disastrous for free speech online. EFF is proud to be part of the coalition fighting back.
The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) would weaken 47 U.S.C. 230 (commonly known as "CDA 230" or simply "Section 230"), which protects Internet intermediaries—individuals, companies, and organizations that provide a platform for others to share speech and content over the Internet. This includes social networks like Facebook, video platforms like YouTube, news sites, blogs, and other websites that allow comments.
SESTA would shift more blame for users' speech to the web platforms themselves, which would likely spur web communities to become much more restrictive in how they patrol and monitor users' contributions.
EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Department of Homeland Security this week on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without warrants at the U.S. border.
The lawsuit challenges the government's fast-growing practice of searching travelers' electronic devices without a warrant, and seeks to establish that the government must have a warrant based on probable cause to suspect a violation of immigration or customs laws before conducting such searches.
EFF Updates
We're Asking the Copyright Office to Protect Your Right to Remix, Study, and Tinker
EFF has filed new petitions with the Copyright Office to give those in the United States protection against legal threats when you take control of your devices and media. We're also seeking broader, better protection for security researchers and video creators against threats from Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
DMCA 1201, an unconstitutional law, bans "circumvention" of access controls on copyrighted works—including software—and bans making or distributing tools that circumvent such digital locks. In effect, it lets hardware and software makers, along with major entertainment companies, control how your digital devices are allowed to function and how you can use digital media. It also creates legal risks for security researchers, repair shops, artists, and technology users.
With iOS 11, More Options to Disable Touch ID Means Better Security
Prior to the public release, some vigilant Twitter users using the iOS 11 public beta discovered a new way to quickly disable Touch ID by just tapping the power button five times, an improvement on previously known and relatively clunky methods for disabling Touch ID.
This is good news for users, particularly those who may be in unpredictable situations with physical security concerns that change over time. We call on other manufacturers to follow Apple's lead and implement this kind of design in their own devices.
Judge Cracks Down on LinkedIn’s Shameful Abuse of Computer Break-In Law
A judge recently issued an early ruling against LinkedIn's abuse of the notorious Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to block a competing service from perfectly legal uses of publicly available data on its website. LinkedIn's behavior is just the sort of bad development we expected after the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit delivered two dangerously expansive interpretations of the CFAA's ban on "unauthorized access."
We're asking the Supreme Court to step in and provide a clear, unequivocal ruling that using a computer in a way that violates corporate policies, preferences, and expectations cannot be grounds for a CFAA violation.
India’s Supreme Court Upholds Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right
A recent judgment by the Supreme Court of India endorsed the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Arising from a challenge to India's biometric identity scheme Aadhaar, the judgment clarifies that privacy is intrinsic to human dignity and liberty.
The judgment calls for the government to create a data protection regime that balances safeguarding the privacy of the individual and the legitimate concerns of the state.
Will TPP-11 Nations Escape the Copyright Trap?
Latest reports confirm that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being revived. The agreement had been shelved following the withdrawal of the U.S. from the negotiation process, but those eager to keep the pact alive have rallied support to move forward with the agreement.
A recent statement by New Zealand's Prime Minister suggests that countries favor an approach that seeks to replicate TPP provisions with minimal number of changes. Avoiding renegotiation or opening up of TPP will lead to enactment of its flawed and untested provisions—including the copyright term extension—with far-reaching ramifications on innovation, creativity and culture.
miniLinks
AI Will Soon Identify Protesters With Their Faces Partly Concealed (Motherboard)
Researchers are quickly figuring out how to identify obscured faces, and governments are quickly figuring out how to exploit that.
Virginia Bars Voting Machines Considered Top Hacking Target (Politico)
In an effort to prevent election tampering, Virginia will not use touchscreen voting machines for November’s gubernatorial vote.
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Editor:
Camille Ochoa, Activist
editor@eff.org
EFFector is a publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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