EFF at the Las Vegas Security Conferences

1 month ago

It’s time for EFF’s annual journey to Las Vegas for the summer security conferences: BSidesLV, Black Hat USA, and DEF CON. Our lawyers, activists, and technologists are always excited to support this community of security researchers and tinkerers—the folks who push computer security forward (and somehow survive the Vegas heat in their signature black hoodies).  

As in past years, EFF attorneys will be on-site to assist speakers and attendees. If you have legal concerns about an upcoming talk or sensitive infosec research—during the Las Vegas conferences or anytime—don’t hesitate to reach out at info@eff.org. Share a brief summary of the issue, and we’ll do our best to connect you with the right resources. You can also learn more about our work supporting technologists on our Coders’ Rights Project page. 

Be sure to swing by the expo areas at all three conferences to say hello to your friendly neighborhood EFF staffers! You’ll probably spot us in the halls, but we’d love for you to stop by our booths to catch up on our latest work, get on our action alerts list, or become an EFF member! For the whole week, we’ll have our limited-edition DEF CON 33 t-shirt on hand—I can’t wait to see them take over each conference! 

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EFF Staff Presentations

Ask EFF at BSides Las Vegas
At this interactive session, our panelists will share updates on critical digital rights issues and EFF's ongoing efforts to safeguard privacy, combat surveillance, and advocate for freedom of expression.
WHEN: Tuesday, August 5, 15:00
WHERE: Skytalks at the Tuscany Suites Hotel & Casino

Recording PCAPs from Stingrays With a $20 Hotspot
What if you could use Wireshark on the connection between your cellphone and the tower it's connected to? In this talk we present Rayhunter, a cell site simulator detector built on top of a cheap cellular hotspot. 
WHEN: Friday, August 8, 13:30
WHERE: DEF CON, LVCC - L1 - EHW3 - Track 1

Rayhunter Build Clinic
Come out and build EFF's Rayhunter! ($10 materials fee as an EFF donation)
WHEN: Friday, August 8 at 14:30
WHERE: DEF CON, Hackers.Town Community Space

Protect Your Privacy Online and on the Streets with EFF Tools
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been protecting your rights to privacy, free expression, and security online for 35 years! One important way we push for these freedoms is through our free, open source tools. We’ll provide an overview of how these tools work, including Privacy Badger, Rayhunter, Certbot, and Surveillance-Self Defense, and how they can help keep you safe online and on the streets.
WHEN: Friday, August 8 at 17:00
WHERE: DEF CON, Community Stage

Rayhunter Internals
Rayhunter is an open source project from EFF to detect IMSI catchers. In this follow up to our main stage talk about the project we will take a deep dive into the internals of Rayhunter. We will talk about the architecture of the project, what we have gained by using Rust, porting to other devices, how to jailbreak new devices, the design of our detection heuristics, open source shenanigans, and how we analyze files sent to us.
WHEN: Saturday, August 9, at 12:00
WHERE: DEF CON, Hackers.Town Community Space

Ask EFF at DEF CON 33
We're excited to answer your burning questions on pressing digital rights issues! Our expert panelists will offer brief updates on EFF's work defending your digital rights, before opening the floor for attendees to ask their questions. This dynamic conversation centers challenges DEF CON attendees actually face, and is an opportunity to connect on common causes.
WHEN: Saturday, August 9, at 14:30
WHERE: DEF CON, LVCC - L1 - EHW3 - Track 4

EFF Benefit Poker Tournament at DEF CON 33

The EFF Benefit Poker Tournament is back for DEF CON 33! Your buy-in is paired with a donation to support EFF’s mission to protect online privacy and free expression for all. Join us at the Planet Hollywood Poker Room as a player or spectator. Play for glory. Play for money. Play for the future of the web. 
WHEN: Friday, August 8, 2025 - 12:00-15:00
WHERE: Planet Hollywood Poker Room, 3667 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV 89109

Beard and Mustache Contest at DEF CON 33

Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Join EFF at the intersection of facial hair and hacker culture. Spectate, heckle, or compete in any of four categories: Full beard, Partial Beard, Moustache  Only, or Freestyle (anything goes so create your own facial apparatus!). Prizes! Donations to EFF! Beard oil! Get the latest updates.
WHEN: Saturday, August 9, 10:00- 12:00
WHERE: DEF CON, Contest Stage (Look for the Moustache Flag)

Tech Trivia Contest at DEF CON 33

Join us for some tech trivia on Saturday, August 9 at 7:00 PM! EFF's team of technology experts have crafted challenging trivia about the fascinating, obscure, and trivial aspects of digital security, online rights, and internet culture. Competing teams will plumb the unfathomable depths of their knowledge, but only the champion hive mind will claim the First Place Tech Trivia Trophy and EFF swag pack. The second and third place teams will also win great EFF gear.
WHEN: Saturday, August 9, 19:00-22:00
WHERE: DEF CON, Contest Stage

Join the Cause!

Come find our table at BSidesLV (Middle Ground), Black Hat USA (back of the Business Hall), and DEF CON (Vendor Hall) to learn more about the latest in online rights, get on our action alert list, or donate to become an EFF member. We'll also have our limited-edition DEF CON 33 shirts available starting Monday at BSidesLV! These shirts have a puzzle incorporated into the design. Snag one online for yourself starting on Tuesday, August 5 if you're not in Vegas!

Join EFF

Support Security & Digital Innovation

Christian Romero

Digital Rights Are Everyone’s Business, and Yours Can Join the Fight!

1 month ago

Companies large and small are doubling down on digital rights, and we’re excited to see more and more of them join EFF. We’re first and always an organization who fights for users, so you might be asking: Why does EFF work with corporate donors, and why do they want to work with us?

SHOW YOUR COMPANY SUPPORTS A BETTER DIGITAL FUTURE

JOIN EFF TODAY

Businesses want to work with EFF for two reasons:

  1. They, their employees, and their customers believe in EFF’s values.
  2. They know that when EFF wins, we all win.

Both customers and employees alike care about working with organizations they know share their values. And issues like data privacy, sketchy uses of surveillance, and free expression are pretty top of mind for people these days. Research shows that today’s working adults take philanthropy seriously, whether they’re giving organizations their money or their time. For younger generations (like the Millennial EFFer writing this blog post!) especially, feeling like a meaningful part of the fight for good adds to a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Given the choice to spend hard-earned cash with techno-authoritarians versus someone willing to take a stand for digital freedom: We’ll take option two, thanks.

When EFF wins, users win. Standing up for the ability to access, use, and build on technology means that a handful of powerful interests won’t have unfair advantages over everyone else. Whether it’s the fight for net neutrality, beating back patent trolls in court, protecting the right to repair and tinker, or pushing for decentralization and interoperability, EFF’s work can build a society that supports creativity and innovation; where established players aren’t allowed to silence the next generation of creators. Simply put: Digital rights are good for business!

The trust of EFF’s membership is based on 35 years of speaking truth to power, whether it’s on Capitol Hill or in Silicon Valley (and let’s be honest, if EFF was Big Tech astroturf, we’d drive nicer cars). EFF will always lead the work and invite supporters to join us, not the other way around. EFF will gratefully thank the companies who join us and offer employees and customers ways to get involved, too. EFF won’t take money from Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, or Tesla, and we won’t endorse or sponsor a company, service, or product. Most importantly: EFF won’t alter the mission or the message to meet a donor’s wishes, no matter how much they’ve donated.

A few of the ways your team can support EFF:

  1.  Cash donations
  2. Sponsoring an EFF event
  3. Providing an in-kind product or service
  4. Matching your employees’ gifts
  5. Boosting our messaging

Ready to join us in the fight for a better future? Visit eff.org/thanks.

Tierney Hamilton

Data Brokers Are Ignoring Privacy Law. We Deserve Better.

1 month ago

Of the many principles EFF fights for in consumer data privacy legislation, one of the most basic is a right to access the data companies have about you. It’s only fair. So many companies collect information about us without our knowledge or consent. We at least should have a way to find out what they purport to know about our lives.

Yet a recent paper from researchers at the University of Californian-Irvine found that, of 543 data brokers in California’s data broker registry at time of publishing, 43 percent failed to even respond to requests to access data.

43 percent of registered data brokers in California failed to even respond to requests to access data, one study shows.

Let’s stop there for a second. That’s more than four in ten companies from an industry that makes its money from collecting and selling our personal information, ignoring one of our most basic rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act: the right to know what information companies have about us.

Such failures violate the law. If this happens to you, you should file a complaint with the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) and the California Attorney General's Office

This is particularly galling because it’s not easy to file a request in the first place. As these researchers pointed out, there is no streamlined process for these time-consuming requests. People often won’t have the time or energy to see them through. Yet when someone does make the effort to file a request, some companies still feel just fine ignoring the law and their customers completely.

Four in ten data brokers are leaving requesters on read, in violation of the law and our privacy rights. That’s not a passing grade in anyone’s book.

Without consequences to back up our rights, as this research illustrates, many companies will bank on not getting caught, or factor weak slaps on the wrist into the cost of doing business.

This is why EFF fights for bills that have teeth. For example, we demand that people have the right to sue for privacy violations themselves—what’s known as a private right of action. Companies hate this form of enforcement, because it can cost them real money when they flout the law.

When the CCPA started out as a ballot initiative, it had a private right of action, including to enforce access requests. But when the legislature enacted the CCPA (in exchange for the initiative’s proponents removing it from the ballot), corporate interests killed the private right of action in negotiations.

We encourage the California Privacy Protection Agency and the California Attorney General’s Office, which both have the authority to bring these companies to task under the CCPA, to look into these findings. Moving forward, we all have to continue to fight for better laws, to strengthen existing laws, and call on states to enforce the laws on their books to respect everyone’s privacy. Data brokers must face real consequences for brazenly flouting our privacy rights.

Hayley Tsukayama

【反戦アピール】戦争を止めよう! 沖縄・西日本ネットワーク「東京行動」=丹原美穂

1 month ago
 「戦争をする国」に突き進む政府が推し進めるミサイル配備や、弾薬庫、基地建設。軍事化が進む沖縄や九州、西日本各地など、現場の市民同士が互いの状況を知り、連携して発足した「戦争とめよう!沖縄・西日本ネットワーク」が東京行動に立ち上がった。6日は政府交渉、7日には「知り、つながり、止める」をキーワードに市民交流集会も開催した。2日間にわたった同ネットワークの取り組みを報告する。 政府交渉は6日午後から夕方まで続き、会場の衆議院議員会館には、沖縄、西日本各地のほか首都圏などから20..
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