The Electronic Frontier Foundation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Electronic Frontier Foundation - Essay Example The Electronic Frontier Foundation The organization is a non-profit organization that relies upon donations for their existence. One of the major areas that EFF attends to is privacy rights. In 2008, the EFF challenged the NSA policy of wiretapping, suing the NSA to end the surveillance of Americans and hold the government officials accountable who pursue these measures. The two cases that they brought were Jewel v. NSA and Hepting v. AT&T. These cases involved a lawsuit against the NSA for directly conducting surveillance on ordinary Americans. Hepting v. AT&T involved a lawsuit against the telecommunications giant because it was helping the government in surveillance measures. These cases were dismissed due to governmental immunity, and is currently on appeal in the 9th Circuit (eff.org). The EFF has also argued in a Senate Judiciary Committee that warrantless searches of individuals’ laptops and other electronic devices are not considered to be a routine search, despite the fact that the Supreme Court found that border guards can conduct a routine search of people who are crossing the border. These are searches that can be conducted without a warrant or either a reasonable suspicion of any criminal wrongdoing. They also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee that taking data from an individual’s laptop or other electronic device should be considered to be a seizure under the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of searches and seizures (eff.org). Additionally, the EFF has urged the senate to put more oversight on border guards. EFF has also argued, successfully, in a Pennsylvania court that the information stored by cell phone providers as to the location of an individual is protected by the Fourth Amendment, therefore the government has to have a warrant based upon probable cause in order to obtain theses records. The government appealed this decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and this is currently being considered by this Court (eff.org). The EFF al so has worked to protect e-mail privacy, stating that the Department of Justice’s policy of requiring an e-mail provider to save prospective e-mails with only a subpoena and a court order not based upon probable cause is illegal, as the government needs to, under the Fourth Amendment, obtain a search warrant based upon probable cause, and this warrant needs to describe exactly what it is that the government is trying to obtain. In this case, the EFF filed an amicus brief in the case, as the case was brought by Steven Warshak (eff.org). The EFF also has helped consumers by helping them get proactive. The way that they do this is by publishing an on-line guide for consumers that helps them understand what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to on-line and electronic issues. This is called Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD). In particular, this organization helps educate consumers about government spying on computers, as well as data that is obtained through electronic mean s such as cell phones, and communications stored by third parties (eff.org). Moreover, the EFF also has launched a program to aid people in foreign lands about their rights regarding privacy concerns (eff.org). Free speech is another broad issue that the EFF. They have resisted the misuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA gives providers immunity when they take down content, while not providing for a way to resist this. The EFF notes that there is a