Electronic Frontier Foundation facts for kids
Logo since 2018
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| Founded | July 10, 1990 |
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| Founders |
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| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization |
| Purpose | Digital rights, Internet activism, lobbying, and litigation |
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Area served
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International |
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Chairman
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Brian Behlendorf |
| Cindy Cohn | |
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Revenue (2020)
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$12.2 million |
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Employees
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79 |
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a non-profit group that works to protect your rights in the digital world. It's based in San Francisco, California, but helps people all over the world. It was started in 1990 to make sure people have freedom and privacy when using the internet and new technologies.
The EFF helps in many ways. They provide money for legal help in court and speak up for people in important cases. They defend individuals and new technologies from unfair legal threats. They also work to show when governments might be doing something wrong online. The EFF gives advice to governments and courts about technology laws. They organize people to take action and support new technologies that help protect personal freedoms and online rights. They also keep track of news and information about digital rights and challenge laws that might limit your freedom or fair use of technology.
Contents
History of the EFF
How the EFF Started
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was created in July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow, and Mitch Kapor. They noticed that law enforcement agencies often didn't understand how online communication worked. This led to situations where people's online freedoms were at risk. They realized there was a big need to protect these "digital civil liberties."
One of the founders, John Perry Barlow, had a visit from an FBI agent. The agent was investigating the theft of some computer code. Barlow realized the agent didn't understand much about computers. He felt that many people in power were confused about technology. This confusion could put everyone's online freedoms in danger.
Barlow shared his experience online, and Mitch Kapor, who had a similar story, contacted him. They both agreed that online civil liberties needed defending. Kapor offered to pay for legal help. They started helping computer users who had been targeted by government raids. This got a lot of attention and led to financial support from others, like John Gilmore and Steve Wozniak.
In June 1990, Barlow wrote an article called "Crime & Puzzlement." In it, he announced plans to create an organization. This group would raise money for education, talking to lawmakers, and legal cases. Its goal was to extend the idea of the Constitution (which protects freedoms) into the digital world.
This idea gained more support. Barlow held meetings with computer industry leaders to figure out how to respond to these threats. He believed that America was entering the "Information Age" without proper laws to protect information. He felt a formal organization was needed, and that's how the EFF began.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation officially started on July 10, 1990. Kapor and Barlow were the main founders. Soon after, Gilmore, Wozniak, and Stewart Brand joined their board of directors.
Early Legal Cases
One of the main reasons the EFF was created was a big event in early 1990. The United States Secret Service raided the offices of a game company called Steve Jackson Games. They mistakenly thought one of the company's games was a guide for computer crime. The search warrant for the raid was issued too quickly. The game company also said their emails were accessed without permission. At that time, phone calls were protected by law, but digital emails were new, and their privacy wasn't clearly protected.
The Steve Jackson Games case was the EFF's first major case. It became a key example for the EFF to start promoting computer and internet civil liberties.
Another important case for the EFF was Bernstein v. United States. In this case, a programmer and professor named Daniel J. Bernstein sued the government. He wanted permission to share his encryption software (a way to scramble information to keep it private) and a paper describing it. More recently, the EFF has defended people like Edward Felten, Jon Lech Johansen, and Dmitry Sklyarov. These cases were about protecting the right to use and share technology, even if governments didn't like it.
Growth and Development
The EFF first started in Boston. By 1993, the main EFF offices moved to Washington D.C. During this time, the EFF focused on influencing national laws. In 1995, the organization moved its offices to San Francisco, California. This helped them reconnect with their supporters.
Over the years, the EFF continued to grow and change leaders. In 2006, they opened another office in Washington, D.C. In 2013, the EFF moved into a new main office in San Francisco. In 2015, Cindy Cohn became the new Executive Director.
The EFF DES Cracker
In the mid-1990s, the EFF was worried because the U.S. government wouldn't let strong encryption products be sold outside the country. The government claimed it couldn't unscramble information protected by the Data Encryption Standard (DES). But the EFF wanted to prove this wasn't true.
So, the EFF helped build a special machine called the EFF DES cracker (also known as Deep Crack). It cost $210,000. This machine could break a DES-encrypted message very quickly. It showed that the government's claims about unbreakable encryption were wrong. The EFF even shared the plans for how to build this cracker. Because of this, a stronger encryption standard, called Advanced Encryption Standard, was created to replace DES.
What the EFF Does
Working with Laws
The EFF works to support laws that protect your online privacy. For example, they are a big supporter of the Email Privacy Act. This act aims to make sure your emails are protected, just like your phone calls.
Taking Legal Action
The EFF often takes part in lawsuits to achieve its goals. They fight against "SLAPP" lawsuits, which stands for "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation." These are lawsuits meant to silence people who speak out. The EFF believes these lawsuits stop free speech.
The EFF has been involved in many important technology law cases. These include cases like MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. and Apple v. Does. In these cases, the EFF works to protect people's rights to use technology and share information.
Challenging Patents
The Patent Busting Project is an EFF effort to challenge patents that they believe are unfair. A patent gives someone the exclusive right to an invention. The EFF believes some patents stop new ideas or limit what people can do online. This project started in 2004. It involves showing the harm caused by these patents and asking the United States Patent and Trademark Office to review them.
Protecting Voting Rights
The EFF has long supported the idea of paper trails for voting machines. This means that when you vote, there should be a paper record that can be checked. They testified about this after the 2004 U.S. presidential election. They also funded research that showed weaknesses in some voting machines.
Since 2008, the EFF has run the Our Vote Live website. This website helps quickly record any problems or attempts to stop people from voting on election day. The EFF was also active during the 2016 United States presidential election. They helped raise awareness about online scams (like "phishing") related to election results. The EFF works to reduce online phishing and promote fair elections.
Fair Content Rules Online
In 2018, the EFF joined other groups to create The Santa Clara Principles. These are guidelines for social media companies about how they should handle content. They suggest:
- Social media companies should share numbers about how many posts they remove.
- If your post is deleted or your account is banned, you should be told why.
- You should be able to appeal (ask for a review) of the decision, and a person should look at your appeal.
The EFF and other groups asked Facebook to adopt these principles. They also asked Facebook to warn users who might have interacted with fake law enforcement accounts.
In 2019, the EFF spoke about the Online Harms White Paper in the United Kingdom. They warned that some ideas to regulate social media could be misused. Also in 2019, the EFF launched a website called "TOSsed out." This site shows examples of when social media rules are not applied fairly. Cindy Cohn from the EFF said that the power to silence people online can be used in many ways, so it's important to protect free speech.
Protecting the Internet's Core
In December 2022, the EFF and many other groups asked internet companies that provide basic services (like hosting websites) to stop trying to control website content. They argued that these companies often have to block an entire website if they want to remove content. This leaves users with little information about why their site was blocked.
They worried that governments might pressure these companies to block websites of people they don't like. They believe that social media platforms and websites that users directly interact with are better at moderating content. These platforms can remove specific content, block individual accounts, and explain their decisions.
This idea came after a campaign called DropKiwifarms. This campaign convinced several internet service providers to stop providing service to a controversial forum. The EFF believes that basic internet services should stay neutral and not decide what content is allowed online.
Awards from the EFF
The EFF gives out two types of awards to support work that matches its goals.
EFF Pioneer Awards
The EFF Pioneer Awards are given every year. They recognize people who are "leaders who are extending freedom and innovation on the electronic frontier." These are people who help make the internet more free and open. In 2017, some of the winners included Chelsea Manning and Mike Masnick.
EFF Cooperative Computing Awards
The EFF Cooperative Computing Awards are a series of four awards. They are meant to encourage regular internet users to help solve big science problems. These awards are given to the first person or group who discovers a very large prime number. An anonymous donor funds these awards.
The awards are:
- $50,000 for a prime number with at least 1,000,000 digits – Awarded in 2000.
- $100,000 for a prime number with at least 10,000,000 digits – Awarded in 2009.
- $150,000 for a prime number with at least 100,000,000 digits.
- $250,000 for a prime number with at least 1,000,000,000 digits.
EFF Software
The EFF has also created some software and browser add-ons to help protect your privacy and security online. These include Switzerland, HTTPS Everywhere, and Privacy Badger.
Secure Messaging Scorecard
The EFF had a project called the Secure Messaging Scorecard. This project looked at different messaging apps and tools. It checked them based on seven rules, like whether messages were encrypted (scrambled for privacy) and if the app's code had been checked recently. A new version of this scorecard is being developed.
How the EFF is Supported
Money Support
In 2021, a group called Charity Navigator gave the EFF a top rating of four out of four stars. This shows that the EFF uses its money well and is a strong organization.
The EFF has received money from companies like Google and Facebook. For example, in 2011, the EFF received $1 million from Google. This was part of a settlement for a lawsuit about privacy issues with Google Buzz.
Other Support
The EFF also gets support in other ways. An art group called Psychological Industries has made buttons with popular images to support the EFF.
In 2014, the EFF flew a large blimp (a type of airship) with Greenpeace over the NSA's Utah Data Center. This was a protest against what they believed was illegal spying by the NSA.
See also
- Digital rights
- European Digital Rights (EDRi)
- Electronic Frontier Canada
- Electronic Frontiers Australia
- Freedom of the Press Foundation
- Internet censorship
- OpenMedia.ca
- Open Rights Group (UK-based)
- Reporters Without Borders
