 Welcome to Effector from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is the audio edition of EFF's email newsletter geared towards keeping you on the bleeding edge of your digital rights. Check the show notes for links to all of our stories. This is Effector Volume 33, Issue 2, titled, Naming and Shaming Public Access Malpractice. This issue was published on March 25, 2021, and I'm your host, member outreach assistant Christian Romero. Let's start with some top features. First up, we've got the FOIALEES 2021. The FOIALEES are EFF's annual opportunity to name and shame government agencies and officials who have stood in the way of public access. We collect the most outrageous and ridiculous stories from journalists, activists, academics, and everyday folk who have filed public records requests and experienced retaliation, over-redactions, exorbitant fees, and other transparency malpractice. We publish this rogues gallery as a FO awards program during the Sunshine Week of March 14 through March 20, 2021, the annual celebration of open government organized by the News Leaders Association. Next up, Google's flock is a terrible idea. Google is leading the charge to replace third-party cookies with a new suite of technologies to target ads on the web. Some of its proposals show that it hasn't learned the right lessons from the ongoing backlash to the surveillance business model. This post will focus on one of those proposals, the Federated Learning of Cohorts, also known as Flock, which is perhaps the most ambitious and potentially the most harmful. We emphatically reject the future of Flock. This is not the world we want, nor the one users deserve. Google needs to learn the correct lessons from the era of third-party tracking and design its browser to work for users, not for advertisers. Lastly, Pasco County Sheriff must end its targeted child harassment program. The Tampa Bay Times has revealed a destructive, quote-unquote, data-driven policing program run by the Pasco County Florida Sheriff's Office. Young people's school grades, absences, minor infractions, and even instances where they are a victim of a crime are used to inform a bogus rubric and point system based on a formula that intends to, quote, prevent future crimes, end quote. This is essentially labeling youths as potential future criminals. EFF is working with a coalition of local, statewide, and national organizations that are trying to dismantle this harmful program. Now, we've got some EFF updates. Seattle and Portland, say no to public-private surveillance networks. An organization calling itself Safe Cities Northwest is aiming to create public-private surveillance networks in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. The organization claims that it is building itself off of a, quote, successful model for public safety, end quote, that it built in San Francisco. However, it's hard to call that model successful when it has been at the center of a civil rights lawsuit and has been used to spy on a number of public events, including black led protests against police violence and a pride parade. Now it's facing resistance from a neighborhood hoping to prevent the spread of the surveillance program. Next up, Sacramento might be undergoing a broadband policy reboot. There are nearly a dozen broadband policy bills in California, many proposing massive positive changes to reinvent how broadband access is delivered to people. This could shed some light on the broader conversation around the digital divide. Next, AppStores have kicked out some location data brokers. Good. Now kick them all out. We've written about the problems with AppStore monopolies. Companies should not have control over what software users choose to run on their devices. That doesn't mean that AppStores shouldn't moderate. Next up, the FBI should stop attacking encryption and tell Congress about all the encrypted phones it's already hacking into. Federal law enforcement has been asking for a back door to read Americans' encrypted communications for years now. And now, FBI Director Christopher Wray did it again earlier this month. But instead of inviting Wray up to Capitol Hill to ask for special ways to invade our privacy and security, senators should be asking Wray about the private data his agents are already trawling through. In all 50 states, police are breaking into phones on a vast scale. And finally, thank you for speaking against a terrible copyright proposal. Early March was the deadline for comments on the draft of the so-called Digital Copyright Act, a proposal which would fundamentally change how creativity functions online. We asked for creators to add their voices to the many groups opposing this draft, and you did it. Ultimately, over 900 of you signed a letter expressing your concern. Now we've got some EFF announcements. Open Source 101 2021. On March 30th, 2021, starting at 10 a.m. Pacific time, EFF is proud to be a supporter of this year's Open Source 101, hosted by a team at All Things Open. Open Source 101 is a one-day conference covering the technologies and processes foundational to open source, open tech, and the open web. This event features industry experts delivering 10-minute keynotes, 45-minute talk tracks, and extended workshop sessions. All content featured is delivered at an introductory or intermediate level. Target audience includes current technology professionals, students, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers of all types. Next up, virtual book reading at City Lights Bookstore. On April 3rd, 2021, at 12 p.m. Pacific time, EFF's Jillian York will be discussing her new book, Silicon Values, the Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism, with Ben Tarnoff at a virtual event hosted by San Francisco's own City Lights Bookstore. The event is free, but advanced registration is required. And our last announcement is Interop, Self-Determination vs. Dystopia, at FITC. On April 20th, 2021, from 4.35 to 5.20 p.m. Eastern time, EFF Special Advisor Corey Doctorow presents a keynote lecture at the 2021 edition of the FITC Design Conference, entitled Interop, Self-Determination vs. Dystopia. And finally, we've got some mini-links. Our first one comes from Vice. This is easily cheating state-of-the-art test proctoring tech. Repeat after us. Proctoring software doesn't even work. Our next mini-link comes from Mozilla. Firefox 86 introduces Total Cookie Protection. The latest version of Firefox comes with, quote, Total Cookie Protection, and quote, built-in. What does that even mean? This next one comes from the Society of Professional Journalists. SPJ NorCal honors First Amendment champions. We're proud to have been awarded a James Madison Freedom of Information Award for our Atlas of Surveillance Project, the largest-ever collection of searchable data on the use of surveillance technologies by law enforcement agencies across the country. This mini-link comes from Malwarebytes Labs. Defending online anonymity and speech with Eva Galperin. Lock and Code, Season 2, Episode 3. Should requiring real names or real IDs make the internet a safer place? The answer is no, says Eva Galperin on the Malwarebytes podcast. The long answer? Hell no. This next mini-link comes from the Wall Street Journal. CVS Walgreens look for big data reward from COVID-19 vaccinations. Your data or your life. And our final mini-link comes from the Chicago Sun-Times. Got Illinois law that prohibits the secret sale of our fingerprints and other biometric information. Kudos to the Chicago Sun-Times Ed Board for raising the alarm. Quote, under the guise of helping small businesses, lawmakers are trying to repeal or eviscerate Illinois's pioneering Biometric Information Protection Act. Thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, be sure to sign up for the email version of Effector, which includes links to in-depth coverage of these stories and more. See past issues and subscribe at EFF.org slash Effector. That's EFF.org slash EFF E-C-T-O-R. Before we end this issue of the newsletter, I just want to let you know that EFF is a member-supported non-profit organization and you can help us protect digital privacy, security, and free expression for everyone. Donate to EFF today and even grab a bit of gear by heading over to EFF.org slash Effect. That's EFF.org slash EFF E-C-T. You can become a member for as little as $25 or even sign up as a monthly or annual donor. Thanks for your support and I hope you'll join us for the next issue of Effector.