Electronic Frontier Foundation

Age verification laws are really just censorship mandates clothed as child safety proposals—here’s why. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/rep-finke-was-right-age-gating-isnt-about-kids-its-about-control

Instagram is about to lose its optional end-to-end encryption feature. Without it, Meta can view every DM on Instagram. Mozilla has a petition to push the company to reverse this decision. [external petition link] https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/petitions/keep-encryption-for-instagram/

Using secure messaging services for all communications and considering what content you post on social media are just two easy ways to build an online space that feels as free and safe as speaking with those closest to us in the offline world. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/building-community-privacy-plan

When lawmakers and advocacy groups frame queer existence itself as a threat to young people, age-verification laws become ideological enforcement instead of regulatory policy. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/rep-finke-was-right-age-gating-isnt-about-kids-its-about-control

Great event last night at @powells@mastodon.social in #Portland #PDX with EFF’s Cindy Cohn! The “Privacy’s Defender” tour continues next week in #Seattle, Silicon Valley, and #Denver - get all the details at https://www.eff.org/Privacys-Defender

The rule that allow the Customs and Border Protection officers to search through your luggage without a
warrant does not extend to your electronic devices. Border officers need a warrant signed by a judge if they want to sift through material that personal to look for evidence of a crime.  
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/eff-third-circuit-electronic-device-searches-border-require-warrant

What’s at stake in the fight against age verification is not just a single bill in a single state. It’s about whether “protecting children” becomes a legal pretext for embedding government control online that reinforces specific moral and religious worldviews. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/rep-finke-was-right-age-gating-isnt-about-kids-its-about-control

In defending free speech, privacy, and the right of young people to access truthful information about themselves, Rep. Leigh Finke was not radical—she was right. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/rep-finke-was-right-age-gating-isnt-about-kids-its-about-control

“What should be happening is if police have good reason to suspect your camera caught evidence of a crime, they should go to a judge and they should get a warrant," EFF’s Matthew Guraiglia told KDKA. https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/new-castle-police-department-security-cameras-program/

Join EFF Exective Director Cindy Cohn and @404mediaco@mastodon.social Cofounder Jason Koebler for an in depth conversation about Cindy's new book "Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance" live on March 19 at 11 am PT https://eff.org/livestream-defender

“What we’re seeing right now is the culmination of decades of cultivated mistrust on the part of both Big Tech and the government,” EFF’s Matthew Guariglia told The Hill. “In a more perfect world, you have entities that you trust with your data.”
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5775732-anthropic-pentagon-ai-surveillance-clash/

WHAT? We’re hosting a launch party for Privacy’s Defender, a new book by EFF’s Cindy Cohn!
WHEN? Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 PM.
WHERE? Ciel Creative Space in Berkeley, CA. RSVP Today! https://www.eff.org/event/privacys-defender-book-launch-party

“When you look at our ever-present surveillance state and the ways in which people are being retaliated against and identified, I think that this is exactly what they (U.S. founding fathers) wouldn't have wanted,” EFF’s Saira Hussain told NPR. https://www.npr.org/2026/03/08/nx-s1-5739225/we-can-get-to-you-whenever-we-want-to-immigrants-say-ice-is-surveilling-them

Age verification risks tying users’ “most sensitive and immutable data” — names, faces, birthdays, home addresses — to their online activity, EFF’s Molly Buckley told CNBC. “Age verification strikes at the foundation of the free and open internet.” https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/08/social-media-child-safety-internet-ai-surveillance.html

WHAT? We’re hosting a launch party for Privacy’s Defender, a new book by EFF’s Cindy Cohn!
WHEN? Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 PM.
WHERE? Ciel Creative Space in Berkeley, CA. RSVP Today! https://www.eff.org/event/privacys-defender-book-launch-party

Our privacy should be a collaborative effort between the government and companies–but we cannot rely solely on their goodwill. That’s why we need strict legislative and democratic controls to contain the surveillance state and private industry. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/anthropic-dod-conflict-privacy-protections-shouldnt-depend-decisions-few-powerful

After spending 30 years fighting for your digital rights, Cindy Cohn is sharing her story with her new book Privacy's Defender—hitting shelves on March 10! Get a copy and become an EFF member while you're at it: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/join-4--wsph

EFF is appalled by how quickly and uncritically internet restrictions are being adopted around the world, David Greene told CNET. "Even if they are under 18, or under 16, children have the right to access information, to speak and to associate.” https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/indonesia-social-media-ban-under-16/

For International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting the contributions of just a few EFF Award recipients from the last decade, whose work to protect privacy, speech, and creativity online has had a global impact.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/admiring-our-heroes-international-womens-day-celebrating-women-who-have-received

“Drone as first responder” programs are branded as emergency response technology, but actually involve “building the infrastructure for a pervasive, aerial mass surveillance system,” EFF’s Sarah Hamid told The Santa Fe New Mexican. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/policing-from-the-sky-santa-fe-police-testing-drone-as-first-responder-future/article_f032d779-9e80-4e03-912a-954912f109d9.html

“Young people still have human rights, and that includes the right to access information and to associate with other people and to speak to the world. These laws are designed to diminish those rights,” EFF’s David Greene told The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2026/03/05/kosa-online-age-verification-free-speech-privacy

Attention to all @socallinuxexpo@social.linux.pizza attendees 👩‍💻 EFF's Bill Budington is presenting at the neighboring conference, SunSecCon today at 11 AM PT! Be sure to check it out: https://www.eff.org/event/eff-scale-23x

The creepy system that serves you targeted ads has been used by the government to track peoples' locations, new reporting confirms. https://eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/targeted-advertising-gives-your-location-government-just-ask-cbp

Update your EFF hoodie collection with our newest Motherboard hoodie! You can pick one up at the titanium level or above: https://eff.org/join

The FTC’s new policy on age verification "will allow businesses to do more of what they want to do, which is vacuum up young people's information," EFF’s @Adam_D_Schwartz@mstdn.social told MediaPost. "It's a threat to privacy to force people to upload this information." https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/413093/ftc-endorses-age-verification-tech.html

In recent years, the built-in password managers in browsers and operating systems have come a long way. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/how-pick-your-password-manager

The U.S. government on Wednesday shut down a vital resource for keeping tabs on what powerful spying tools its agencies are buying, making it harder to reliably find out how agencies including ICE are spending taxpayers’ dollars. https://www.404media.co/the-government-just-made-it-harder-to-see-what-spy-tech-it-buys/

The Trump administration takes a "let's grab everything first and ask questions later approach” to collecting data at U.S. borders, raising concerns about how it’s used, retained, and shared, EFF’s Saira Hussain told Radio New Zealand. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/587964/government-deciding-whether-us-should-get-access-to-new-zealanders-biometric-data

Palantir's software would be a dangerous tool even in the hands of an extremely responsible immigration agency, EFF’s Cindy Cohn said, but “a powerful tool in the hands of an irresponsible and human rights-violating agency is a toxic mix.” https://www.notus.org/money/tom-suozzi-palantir-stock-homeland-security-ice

“I can hear why the sheriff would say, ‘Well, if any stranger can buy that information, why can’t I buy that information?’” EFF’s Beryl Lipton told Flatwater Free Press. “I would argue any stranger should not be able to buy that information.” https://flatwaterfreepress.org/this-nebraska-company-is-supplying-ice-with-surveillance-tech/

Buying a track or ebook that you can’t pass on, share, or transfer isn’t ownership; it’s a rental. We need to restore digital first sale. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/rent-only-copyright-culture-makes-us-all-worse

With Encrypt It Already, we’re pushing on tech companies to deliver stronger privacy protections to their users by enabling and expanding the use of end-to-end encryption across their products or services. https://encryptitalready.org/

"They're going full steam ahead to figure out how to wring a profit out of this stuff," EFF’s Cooper Quintin told @Bbcworld@mastodon.social. "There are countless ways to abuse this." https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260218-i-hacked-chatgpt-and-googles-ai-and-it-only-took-20-minutes

EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn is keynoting at #SCaLE23x in just a few weeks! Be sure to catch her keynote and see EFF in the expo hall: https://www.eff.org/event/eff-scale-23x

The Wisconsin Senate is voting on S.B. 130/A.B. 105, a problematic age verification bill that effectively bans VPN access to certain websites. If you live in Wisconsin, now is the time for you to contact your State Senator and urge them to vote down this bill. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/eff-wisconsin-legislature-vpn-bans-are-still-terrible-idea

Don’t be fooled by Ring’s latest attempt to make mass surveillance and real-time identification the new norm in our neighborhoods. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/no-one-including-our-furry-friends-will-be-safer-rings-surveillance-nightmare-0

Tax-funded surveillance systems have targeted people seeking abortions, protesters exercising First Amendment rights, and communities impacted by discriminatory policing. Find out how your community can push back at our livestream on 2/19 "Get the Flock Out of Our City." RSVP today at https://www.eff.org/livestream-flock.

Wikipedia receives hundreds of legal demands every year to remove user-written content. Almost all are rejected. We spoke with Wikimedia’s legal team about how Section 230 helps protect volunteer editors and public knowledge. https://www.eff.org/pages/internet-still-works-wikipedia-defends-its-editors

Now more than ever, people have seen the real-world risk of invasive face recognition technology. We won’t lose focus. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/seven-billion-reasons-facebook-abandon-its-face-recognition-plans

Apple, Google, Meta, Bluesky, Ring, Telegram—all these companies could offer stronger protections for our chats and our data. https://www.encryptitalready.org

Lawmakers across the world that are considering bills that would make Discord’s approach the norm for every platform should watch this backlash and similarly move away from age verification mandates. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/discord-voluntarily-pushes-mandatory-age-verification-despite-recent-data-breach

Our latest EFFector is out! We're covering Homeland Security's unlawful subpoenas to silence critics, our push to expand encryption protections, and a new bill to stop government face scans. Learn more: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/homeland-security-wants-names-effector-383

Discord did not have to “comply in advance” by requiring age verification for all users, whether or not they live in a jurisdiction that mandates it. Discord should reconsider whether expanding identity checks is worth the harm to its communities. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/discord-voluntarily-pushes-mandatory-age-verification-despite-recent-data-breach

What's Certbot? It's EFF's free, open source tool for automatically using Let’s Encrypt certificates on millions of domains across the web. It's also part of a growing number of EFF technology projects designed to protect your freedom online. Help support this work today! https://eff.org/support-certbot