 Welcome to Affector 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 Affector Volume 33, Issue 3, titled, Surprising No One, Users Don't Actually Want to be Tracked. This issue was published on Friday, May 14th, 2021, and I'm your host, member outreach assistant, Christian Romero. Let's start with some top features. First up, Apple's app tracking transparency is upending mobile phone tracking. Apple's long-awaited privacy update for iOS is out and it's a solid step in the right direction. With the launch of iOS 14.5, hundreds of millions of iPhone users will now have app tracking transparency, which means that apps are required to ask permission if they want to track you and your activity across other apps. Allowing users to choose what third-party tracking they will or will not tolerate and forcing apps to request those permissions will give users more knowledge of what apps are doing and help protect them from abuse. And for our final feature, Am I Flocked? A new site to test Google's invasive experiment. In April, EFF launched Am I Flocked, a new site that will tell you whether your Chrome browser has been turned into a guinea pig for federated learning of cohorts or Flock, Google's latest targeted advertising experiment. If you are a subject, we will tell you how your browser is describing you to every website you visit. Am I Flocked is part of an effort to bring to light the invasive practices of the ad tech industry, Google included, with the hope that we can create a better internet for all, where our privacy rights are respected regardless of how profitable they may be to tech companies. Now we've got some EFF updates. First up, Maine should take this chance to defund the local intelligence fusion center. The Maine state legislature is currently considering a piece of legislation that would close the Maine Information and Analysis Center, MIAC, also known as Maine's only fusion center. Fusion centers are yet another unnecessary cog in the surveillance state, and one that serves the intrusive function of coordinating surveillance activities and sharing information between federal law enforcement, the national security apparatus, and local and state police. EFF is happy to support this bill in hopes of defunding an unnecessary, intrusive, and often harmful piece of the US surveillance regime. Next up, why EFF supports repeal of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that protects government actors from civil lawsuits, directly harms people in two ways. First, many victims of constitutional violations are not compensated for their injury. Second, many more people suffer constitutional violations because the doctrine removes an incentive to government officials to follow the constitution. Over and over, qualified immunity has undermined judicial protection of digital rights. Next, proctoring tools and drag net investigations rob students of due process. Like many schools, Dartmouth College has increasingly turned to technology to monitor students taking exams at home. And while many universities have used proctoring tools that purport to help educators prevent cheating, Dartmouth Skiesel School of Medicine has gone dangerously further. Apparently working under an assumption of guilt, the university is in the midst of a drag net investigation of complicated system logs searching for data that might reveal student misconduct without a clear understanding of how those logs can be littered with false positives. Next, EFF sues proctorio on behalf of student if falsely accused of copyright infringement to get critical tweets taken down. EFF filed a lawsuit against proctorio on behalf of college student Eric Johnson, seeking a judgment that he did not infringe the company's copyrights when he linked to excerpts of its software code in tweets criticizing the software maker. Proctorio, a developer of exam administration and surveillance software, misused the copyright takedown provisions of the DMCA to have Johnson's Twitter posts removed. Quote, copyright holders should be held liable when they falsely accused their critics of copyright infringement, especially when the goal is to plainly intimidate and undermine them, and quote, said staff attorney Cara Gagliano. Next up, Victory for Fair Use. The Supreme Court reverses the federal circuit in Oracle v. Google. In a win for innovation, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that Google's use of certain Java application programming interfaces, APIs, is lawful fair use. In doing so, the court reversed the previous rulings by the federal circuit and recognized that copyright only promotes innovation and creativity when it provides breathing room for those who are building on what has come before. And for our last update, we've got surveillance self-defense playlist, Getting to Know Your Phone. We are launching a new privacy breakdown of mobile phones playlist on surveillance self-defense, EFF's online guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices. This guided tour walks through the ways your phone communicates with the world, how your phone is tracked, and how that tracking data can be analyzed. And now we've got some announcements. First up, EFF at Picon 2021. From May 14th to May 15th, EFF is excited to be a part of Picon US 2021 put on by the Python Software Foundation. If you're interested in learning about the Python programming language, this is the event for you. You can also stop by and say hi to EFF. We'll be at one of the virtual booths where you can check out some EFF gear, find some of our one-pager handouts, and chat with us either via video or text. We'll see you there. Next up, Cyper Session, Mobile Security. On May 15th, 2021, from 11am to 12pm Pacific Time, Cyper Collective, a local organization in the Electronic Frontier Alliance, not EFF, will host this event. After quite a winter indoors, there are a lot of people looking to celebrate the season by hitting the street advocating for causes and ideals they believe Join Cyper as we talk about things to be aware of for those on the street and for those simply navigating a surveilled city. Next up, Private Surveillance. On May 17th, 2021, from 6pm to 7pm Pacific Time, Portland's Techno Activism 3rd Mondays, a local organization in the Electronic Frontier Alliance, not EFF, will host this event. This month, local Portland tech journalist KK will join us to talk about ways companies and other private entities are surveilling the public and what that means for privacy and government policies for tech and data use. Next, Stop and Rad Tech. Carceral Technologies and Imprisonment Remarketed. On May 8th, 2021, from 3am to 4pm Pacific Time, Stop, a local organization in the Electronic Frontier Alliance, not EFF, will host this event. This session will examine the ways that technology recreates carceral systems beyond the borders of jails and prisons. These technologies include ankle shackles, monitoring location and blood alcohol content, voice verification, and facial recognition check-ins. Often marketed as bold reforms, these technologies are violent replacements for incarceration in the criminal and immigration detention contexts. Next, How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism. Seize the means of computation. On May 19th, 2021, at 1pm Pacific Time, join Corey Doctorow in conversation with Andrew Clement in the Ryerson Center for Free Expression series, taming big tech exploring the alternatives. Corey is an award-winning author, journalist, and blogger who has worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is an MIT Media Lab research affiliate, and is a visiting professor of computer science at Open University. Andrew Clement is the Professor Emeritus in University of Toronto's Facility of Information, where he coordinates the Information Policy Research Program and co-founded the Identity, Privacy, and Security Institute. Next, NorthSec Keynote, Privacy Without Monopoly, Beyond Feudal Security. On May 20th, 2021, at 9pm Pacific Time, EFF Special Advisor Corey Doctorow presents a keynote from Montreal's NorthSec Conference. If our best bet for preventing the next Cambridge Analytica is to trust Facebook to defend our privacy, we are so dead. Big tech says we can't have interoperability because they need to be able to exclude competitors to defend us from bad guys. But what if they're the bad guys? Interoperability is fully compatible with privacy, and security through monopoly is no security at all. Next up, Bridging the Digital Divide in a Post-Pandemic Maran. On May 21st, 2021, from 11.30am to 12.30pm, with the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel now in sight, what will the new normal look like? Have we learned the lessons offered us by the disparate impact of the digital divide on our most impacted neighbors and loved ones? Join Canal Alliance, Digital Maran, Maran Promise Partnership, Maran County of Office of Education, City of San Rafael, County of Maran, Maran Economic Forum, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and our distinguished panelists in collecting the opportunity before us for our collective action towards a more just digital future. Next up, EFF at Home, Fighting Stalkerware. On May 28th, 2021, from 1pm to 2pm pacific time, Stalkerware is the class of apps that are sold commercially for the purpose of covertly spying on another person's device. They can be blatantly marketed as tools for catching a cheating spouse, or they may describe themselves as tools for tracking your children or employees' devices. The key defining feature of Stalkerware is that it is designed to operate covertly, to trick the user into believing that they are not being monitored. Join EFF's director of cybersecurity, Eva Galperin, and experts from the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Caspersi, and Malwarebytes to learn about what the fight against Stalkerware has accomplished and where we go from here. And for our last announcement, USINIX-LISA-21. From June 1st, 2021 to June 3rd, 2021, EFF is proud to support LISA-21, a computer conference by USINIX. This conference is geared towards connecting professionals who make computing work efficiently across industries. And now, we've got some job openings. First up, Civil Liberty staff attorney. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking for a full-time litigator to join EFF's team of dedicated attorneys. The ideal candidate is someone who is excited about and will help us further our mission of protecting and promoting privacy, civil liberties, and free expression. And ensuring that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows. We're looking for an excellent writer who thinks big and creatively about how impact litigation can advance human rights in the digital world and who can identify important issues early. Lastly, Operations Manager. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an established San Francisco-based nonprofit organization defending online privacy and free expression, is looking for a full-time energetic and enthusiastic office and facilities manager to join our operations team and ensure the physical office is a productive and resourceful environment. And finally, we've got some many links. This first one is from the Intercept. US Marshals used drones to spy on Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, DC. Documents released from the Freedom of Information Act revealed that the US Marshals Service used drones to spy on protests in Washington, DC in summer of 2020. This next one is from Vice. Schools use software that blocks LGBTQ plus content, but not white supremacists. A motherboard investigation found the algorithmic surveillance tools allowed racist groups like the KKK while flagging LGBTQ health sites as porn. This next one is from EndGadget. New York AG Report finds 18 million FCC net neutrality comments were fake. After years of investigation, the Office of New York Staff Attorney General, Letitia James, has published a report on exactly what happened in 2017. Broadband companies funded a secret astroturfing campaign to push the FCC towards repealing net neutrality. Our last many link comes from the Intercept. Hollywood lobbyists intervene against proposal to share vaccine technology. The same motion picture association that wanted to stop you from sharing music and movies that you own wants to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic by opposing efforts to provide vaccines and developing countries. And that's it. 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. 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 ECT. 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.