Security News
Security News is an archive of curated EFF Deeplinks posts for trainers, technologists, and educators who teach digital security.
Issues that we track here include: country-specific policy updates on security and privacy, updates on malware and vulnerabilities, discussions on encryption and privacy-protecting tools, updates on surveillance (corporate surveillance, street-level surveillance, and mass surveillance), device searches by law and border enforcement, tracking via devices, and general digital security tips.
EFF's Fight to End Warrantless Device Searches at the Border: A Roundup of Our Advocacy
EFF has been working on multiple fronts to end a widespread violation of digital liberty—warrantless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at the border. Government policies allow border agents to search and confiscate our cell phones, tablets, and laptops at airports and border crossings for no reason, without explanation or any suspicion of wrongdoing. It’s as if our First and Fourth Amendment rights don’t exist at the border. This is wrong, which is why we’re working to challenge...
Read MoreEFF to Supreme Court: Protect the Privacy of Cross-Border Data
Update (April 17, 2018): In light of the passage of the CLOUD Act, the Supreme Court dismissed the case as moot and vacated the lower court rulings.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation urged the Supreme Court today to hold that Microsoft cannot be forced by the U.S. government to disclose the contents of users’ emails stored on the company’s computers in Dublin, Ireland.
The stakes for user privacy in the court’s decision are extremely high. Governments around the...
Read MoreStop the Newest Border Screening Bill
Biometric screening, surveillance drones, social media snooping, license plate readers—all this and more would be required by new federal legislation to expand high-tech spying on U.S. citizens and immigrants alike at and near the U.S. border.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced “the SECURE Act” (S. 2192) on December 5. It borrows liberally from two other federal bills—H.R. 3548 and S. 1757—that EFF opposed earlier this year. Those bills were respectively introduced by Rep....
Read MoreCBP Reveals How Agents Implement New Policy Not to Access Cloud Content
President Trump’s nominee to be Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Kevin McAleenan, revealed during his confirmation process how the agency implements its new policy not to access cloud content during border searches of digital devices.
In response to written questions for the record submitted by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and other members of the Senate Finance Committee, McAleenan explained that in accordance with CBP’s new policy to access only...
Read MoreCrossing the U.S. Border? Here’s How to Securely Wipe Your Computer
Many people crossing the U.S. border are concerned about the amount of power that the government has asserted to search and examine travelers’ possessions, including searching through or copying contents of digital devices, like photos, emails, and browsing history. The frequency of these intrusive practices has been increasing over time.
Some travelers might choose to delete everything on a particular device or disk to ensure that border agents...
Read MoreThe Bill of Rights at the Border: Fifth Amendment Protections for Account Passwords and Device Passcodes
This is the third and final installment in our series on the Constitution at the border. Today, we’ll focus on the Fifth Amendment and passwords. Click here for Part 1 on the First Amendment or Part 2 on the Fourth Amendment.
Lately, a big question on everyone's mind has been: Do I have to give my password to customs agents?
As anyone who’s ever watched any cop show knows, the Fifth Amendment gives you the right to remain silent and to refuse to provide evidence against...
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