EFFector Volume 37, Issue 10

🫥 Spotify Face Scans Are Just the Beginning

Welcome to an all-new EFFector, your regular digest on everything digital rights from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In our 827th issue: How the UK’s Online Safety Act exposes the danger posed by age assurance schemes, a brazen act of government intimidation in Florida, and a sneaky plan to make it easier than ever for U.S. agencies to get their hands on Canadians’ private data.

When you lose your rights online, you lose them in real life. Become an EFF member today!

Featured Story: The UK's Online Safety Act Is a Warning

Thanks to the UK’s Online Safety Act, the world was given a grim preview this summer of what a “safer” internet looks like to the powers that be. Their vision? An age-gated internet that’s less private, less free, and less, well, safe.

Almost overnight, people in the UK found themselves blocked from talking about menstruation on Reddit, watching racy music videos on Spotify, or even just reading their direct messages on Bluesky. Unless, that is, they verified their ages by either sharing sensitive personal information or allowing their faces to be scanned.

Like many censorship regimes, age-gating has been sold to the public as a necessary measure to keep kids safe. In this case, to shield children from harmful content online. But the UK Online Safety Act has exposed exactly what this looks like in practice:

• An internet where information on reproductive health and police violence is blocked by default.
• An internet where the government decides what kind of information is “too sensitive” for you to look at without first revealing who you are.
• An internet where the big tech platforms collect even more information on their users.
• An internet where kids and adults alike must trust strangers with vast quantities of their most personal information.

Unfortunately, the UK is not alone. Around the world, governments are racing to roll out similar age restrictions. In Australia, search engines will soon be checking users’ ages when they sign in. In the EU, five countries plan to pilot national age verification apps. And in the U.S., several states have passed similar child safety laws that — so far, at least — have been blocked by courts as unconstitutional.

EFF campaigned against the UK Online Safety Act before it was passed, and we will continue to fight against online age restrictions in the U.S. and around the globe. Sadly, the full damage of these measures can often only be felt after they’ve been put in place.

It’s now clearer than ever that age assurance schemes ultimately ask us to do two things: give tech companies more of our private information and give governments more control over what we can see. Do you trust either of them? Try to answer quickly. Once the next age verification law is enacted, it may be too late.

READ MORE…

‌EFF Updates

🏳‍🌈 FREE EXPRESSION: A bar hosted a drag show. Now Florida wants a list of names. After a Florida restaurant hosted a LGBTQ+ Pride event, the state subpoenaed the venue for surveillance video, guest lists, reservation logs, and contracts of performers and other staff. On our blog, we explain why this act of government intimidation should set off every civil liberties alarm bell we have.

🇨🇦 CROSS-BORDER SURVEILLANCE: Canada’s Bill C-2 isn’t just a privacy-shattering domestic surveillance bill. It’s also a Trojan horse for U.S. law enforcement — quietly building the pipes to ship Canadians’ private data straight to Washington. EFF joins dozens of organizations and experts in asking for the withdrawal of this proposal to give away Canadians’ digital lives — to U.S. police, to the Trump administration, and possibly to foreign spies.

💽 DATA BROKERS: Private data brokers are quietly amassing hoards of information about our lives without our consent. We should at least be able to find out what they think they know. Yet a recent paper found that 43 percent of registered data brokers in California failed to respond to requests for personal data, as required by state privacy law. On our blog, we call for data brokers to face real consequences for flouting our privacy rights.

🎧 ON THE POD: Many of the internet’s thorniest problems can be attributed to the concentration of power in a few corporate hands. On this episode of EFF's "How to Fix the Internet" podcast, we talk to eminent tech journalist Kara Swisher about how antitrust legislation and enforcement can create a healthier online ecosystem.

Fresh EFF Gear Is Here

Show off your support for EFF with hot digital rights merch from our online store. In addition to EFF shirts and hoodies, we have a wide variety of freedom-supporting swag in stock, including (extremely popular) liquid core gaming dice, HTTP playing cards, and a tactile Lady Justice braille sticker.

And if you want to show your passion for one issue in particular, consider picking up some Space Cat Pride socks, a reproductive justice tote bag, or a heat-changing encryption mug that reveals its secret slogan when hot. Sip in style and support EFF’s work defending your privacy and digital rights, one cup at a time.

"It's just a really ill-thought-out approach to protecting people online."

EFF's Paige Collings in this week's EFFector audio companion on what makes the UK's internet age-gating law, the Online Safety Act, so flawed. Hear our discussion with Paige here.

MiniLinks

🗣️ Free Speech

• "Inside The Mass Call Campaign To Stop Video Game Censorship" (Aftermath)

• "YouTube’s selfie collection, AI age checks are concerning, privacy experts say" (Ars Technica)

🔒 Privacy

• "Police nationwide are embracing a new first responder: Drones" (Washington Post)

• "Trump officials float plan for Americans to share their medical data more freely" (The Register)

• "Schools are next for Flock Safety’s automatic license place reader cameras" (The Record)

• "Home Depot and Lowe's Share Data From Hundreds of AI Cameras With Cops" (404 Media)

• "Civil liberties advocates warn of privacy risks with new digital ID law" (New Jersey Monitor)

🌎 International

• "Palestine Action ban coupled with Online Safety Act 'a threat to public debate'" (The Guardian)

🗝️ Security

• "TeaOnHer, a rival Tea app for men, is leaking users’ personal data and driver’s licenses" (TechCrunch)

Announcements

EFF Events

• EFF at HOPE_16 🌎 in New York, NY | Aug. 15-17
• The EFF Awards 🏆 in San Francisco, CA | Sep. 10

Corporate Giving and Sponsorships

• EFF thanks the organizations who support our work. To learn more about how your team can make an impact, visit https://eff.org/thanks.

Get in the Fight

What the future looks like is being decided today. Join the movement to protect our digital rights.

Governments are censoring the internet. Private companies are exploiting our data for profit. Police are using dystopian technology to track our every move. What does EFF do? We defend encryption. We sue the NSA and DOGE. We build tools to stop corporate surveillance.

Technology should serve all people, not just the powerful. With your support, we can take back control.