Digital Hopes, Real Power: How the Arab Spring Fueled a Global Surveillance Boom When people remember the 2011 uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), they picture crowded squares, raised phones, and the feeling that the internet had finally shifted the balance o...

People across the Middle East and North Africa face arrest, long prison sentences, and exile based on their digital traces. This particularly impacts human rights defenders and journalists. But against near impossible odds, people continue finding pathways to freedom. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Flock haters cross political divides to remove error-prone cameras Lawmakers’ calls for Flock probe may help kill local contracts, expert says.

“When people understand that Flock data can be used to track them exercising reproductive freedom or to facilitate federal immigration enforcement, the calculus around ‘public safety’ technology changes entirely,” EFF’s @tsnvaa.bsky.social told @ArsTechnica.com. arstechnica.com/tech-policy...

Newly obtained documents confirm what law enforcement and Flock Safety tried to deny: A Texas sheriff’s office used license plate readers while investigating a woman’s self-managed abortion, not to find a “missing person." www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Flock contract termination talks persist after city orders cease-and-desist When Evanston announced it would break off its contract with Flock Safety — a surveillance technology company operating a system of license-plate reading cameras — in an Aug. 27 news release, months of public scrutiny largely subsided.  Over the summer, local advocates, politicians and officials weighed the risks of using license-plate recognition technology against their...

“Communities are recognizing the threat that these vehicular surveillance systems pose and they are saying no, and that no is contagious,” EFF’s @tsnvaa.bsky.social told @thedailynu.bsky.social. dailynorthwestern.com/2025/09/28/...

Assata Shakur died free

Safety in Unity 2025 with added speakers Sarah T. Hamid (@eff.org) and Pedro Rios (@pedroconsafos.bsky.social) joining TRUST to fight against mass #surveillance in San Diego!
Saturday, September 20 from 11am-3pm in City Heights
RSVP at trst.fyi/su25 for location

The Portland Police Bureau has posted directive "445.00 AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE READER (ALPR)" for first universal review.

Comments are due on August 31, 2025.

www.portland.gov/sites/defaul...

EFF's @tsnvaa.bsky.social will be sharing the history of Flock in the U.S. and the growing risks and concerns with the technology at this teach-in for the Denver community on 7/15 from 6-8pm MT. You can join online at bit.ly/FLOCKteachin.

Flock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe Two recent statements from the surveillance company—one addressing Illinois privacy violations and another defending the company's national surveillance network—reveal a troubling pattern: when confro...

Flock Safety says it’s fixing its tech. But its feature updates do little to fix their mass surveillance model.

Austin city manager removes item on automatic license plate readers from council agenda Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax has removed an item concerning a potential expansion of the city's automated license plate reader program from Thursday's council agenda.

Victory! Austin's ALPR contract will be allowed to end by our city council at the end of the month. The battle is won, but the fight continues. Join us and other activist groups for a victory press release tomorrow at 11:30am at city hall!

Join us at Austin City Hall tomorrow for a press conference and on Thursday at the city council meeting to urge council members to REJECT our ALPR program, Item #67 (Against). These tools of mass surveillance can be stopped if YOU speak up. services.austintexas.gov/edims/docume...

منتدى فلسطين للنشاط الرقمي 2025 منتدى فلسطين للنشاط الرقمي 2025

EFF is a partner of this year’s Palestine Digital Activism Forum, taking place May 20th and 21st. Register today to hear from 60+ speakers about how war has impacted the digital rights of Palestinians in Gaza.

a page-length photo collage by Emory Douglas from the Black Panther Party newspaper, September 21, 1974: Over a backdrop of newspaper print of transaction data and charts from the New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange, the image features a line drawing of a massive hand covering almost half the page. The hand is tattooed with logos from major corporations, including PepsiCo, Exxon, Texaco, PanAm, Ford, Xerox, IBM, Chevron, and Bank of America. Below the hand is a B&W photo of Gerald Ford, with a newspaper tucked under his left arm, his right arm raised in a salute, and a speech bubble that reads: "I Gerald Ford and the 38th Puppet of the United States." Dotted lines connect Ford to the hand, indicating the then-president is a marionette controlled by these corporate interests.

{theory of change, circa '74/'19}