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List of wrongs according to author: * EFF currently takes money from Facebook and Google. Money comes from donations and strange payments resulting from liti
by rmrfstar 6y ago
List of wrongs according to author:
* EFF currently takes money from Facebook and Google. Money comes from donations and strange payments resulting from litigation (settlement? judgement? case names?)
* Founders of EFF were rich guys with "bizzjets"
* Early sponsors included large monopolists like IBM, MCI, Bell, AT&T, and Microsoft
* EFF moved HQ from Cambridge to DC instead of investing in regional offices to build a grass-roots movement
* After DC move, EFF hired Jerry Berman who previously helped "turn the ACLU into a big business lobby" and also "helped craft the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act" which is the statutory origin of the pen trap (metadata without warrant).
* EFF and Berman helped design "Communications Law Enforcement Assistance Act" of 1994, which requires companies to build infrastructure for wiretapping (with warrant).
* Non-specific "lobbying for ISPs" after moving to SF
* EFF did not join 2004 letter asking Google to delay gmail launch because of privacy concerns, and deflected criticism for this. EFF staffer $W occasionally parroted Google corporate talking points.
* CA state senator Figueroa proposed legislation that would essentially ban Google from having algorithms read emails. EFF attacked Figueroa, "painting her as ignorant and out of [her] depth". Author of the attack pieces was EFF staffer $W, who left the EFF for Google shortly after this episode.
* EFF collaborated with large companies to oppose SOPA. Their public communications used language similar to corporate communications on the same topic.
* EFF's position is "corporate surveillance neutral, government surveillance bad." Evidence is lack of attention to corporate surveillance, and (ineffective) public condemnation of government surveillance. Also former staff statements confirming this view.