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

The Electronic Frontier rump - Essay ExampleThe Electronic Frontier Foundation The organization is a non-profit organization that relies upon donations for their existence. One of the major areas that shaft 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 responsible 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 be ready 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 to a fault argued in a Senate Judiciary Committee that warrantless searches of individuals laptops and other electronic devices are no t considered to be a routine search, despite the fact that the absolute Court found that b narrate 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 selective information from an individuals laptop or other electronic device should be considered to be a seizure under the Fourth Amendments forbidding 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 nourished by the Fourth Amendment, therefore the government has to have a warrant based upon likely cause in order to obtain theses records. The government appealed this decision to the Third Circuit Co urt of Appeals, and this is currently being considered by this Court (eff.org). The EFF also has worked to protect e-mail privacy, stating that the Department of Justices 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 management Self-Defense (SSD). In particular, this organization helps educate consumers or so govern ment spying on computers, as well as data that is obtained through electronic fashion 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, age not providing for a way to resist this. The EFF notes that there is a