 Welcome to Affector from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is the audio edition of EFF's emailed newsletter geared towards keeping you on the bleeding edge of your digital rights. This is Affector Volume 35, Issue 5, titled, Decoding the UN Cybercrime Treaty. This issue was published on Monday, April 17th, 2023, and I'm your host, Member Outreach Assistant Christian Romero. Let's start with our top feature. Decoding the UN Cybercrime Treaty Negotiations for a proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty commenced in 2017, but began to take shape in 2022, and there's a lot at stake. The draft treaty has the potential to rewrite criminal laws around the world, possibly adding over 30 criminal offenses and new expansive police powers for both domestic and international criminal investigations. These widened parameters have grave implications for billions of people, particularly the potential for stifling free speech, increasing government surveillance, and expanding state investigative techniques. Now let's move over to some updates. First up, stop the Restrict Act and pass real privacy legislation. Under the guise of curbing data collection by foreign governments, the Restrict Act, Senate Bill 686, would set the stage for a restriction on the use of TikTok, but not do nearly enough to truly protect our private information. There are legitimate data privacy concerns about social media platforms, but the Restrict Act is a distraction. Congress instead should pass comprehensive data privacy legislation. Next, AI art generators in the online image market. Now that computer generated imaging is accessible to anyone with a weird idea and an internet connection, the creation of AI art is raising questions and lawsuits. The problem going forward is keeping the good things, open source technology that researchers can audit, cutting down on tedious parts of making things, without letting the concerns give powers to the same companies that disempower artists every day. Next, enough is enough. Tell Congress to ban federal use of face recognition. Police and government use of face recognition technology cannot be effectively regulated. Face surveillance in the hands of the government is a fundamentally harmful technology, even under strict regulations and if the technology was 100% accurate. Protect your elected federal officials and tell them to support the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act. Next up, smart locks endanger tenants' privacy and should be regulated. The growing deployment of smart locks in apartments has created a new stream of sensitive location data for law enforcement, landlords, and private companies. Tenants should not be forced to submit tracking just to enter their home. At minimum, we need privacy laws that require consent to collect this data, a warrant for police access, and strong data minimization. And for our final update, podcast episode, Losing Until We Win, Realistic Revolution in Science Fiction. Science Fiction author and science journalist Annalie Newitz speaks with EFF Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelly about depicting true progress as a long haul endeavor, understanding that failure is a part of the process and creating good law as a form of world building and improving our future. Now let's go over some EFF events. First up, EFF at Beeside San Francisco. We're happy to be back at Beeside San Francisco from April 22nd to April 23rd. If you're attending the event, be sure to stop by our booth and say hi. You can even pick up a special gift when you take advantage of our membership specials or donate. Next up, EFF 7th Annual Tech Trivia Night. Join us in San Francisco on Thursday, April 27th for EFF 7th Annual Tech Trivia Night. Explore the obscure monotony of digital security, online rights, and internet culture. Enjoy delicious tacos, churros, and drink as your team battles through rounds of questions and cutthroat live judging to see who will take home the coveted trophies and EFF swag. And for our last event, EFF at Black Hat USA. EFF is once again excited to be back in Las Vegas for Black Hat USA. If you're interested in submitting a talk to Black Hat, you can contact info at EFF.org about any legal concerns regarding your talk or any sensitive info security research you are conducting. And finally, let's run through some mini-links. First up from Just Security, Digital Privacy Legislation is Civil Rights Legislation. As Congress ponders legislation to reform big tech, it must view comprehensive digital privacy legislation as desperately needed civil rights legislation because data abuses often disproportionately harm communities already bearing the brunt of other inequalities. EFF's page callings and Adam Schwartz make the case. Next up from Reason, the government is turning border surveillance on everyday Americans. When viewing the towers on the map, you can really get a sense of how these tools of surveillance are installed in residential communities along the U.S.-Mexico border, be it in urban or rural, and not in just remote expanses of the Southwest. EFF's Dave Moss discusses our new border surveillance technology map. Next up from Mashable, Why Age Verification Bills for Porn Sites Won't Work? Louisiana's age verification law is essentially creating an immediate requirement for people to share their private information alongside their pornography preference with companies that don't necessarily have a system in place to protect that data. EFF's Jason Kelly breaks it down. Next up from BBC News, Clearview AI used nearly one million times by U.S. police. It tells the BBC. Clearview is a private company that is making face prints of people based on their photos online without their consent. It's been a huge problem for civil liberties and civil rights, and it absolutely needs to be banned. EFF's Matthew Gariglia argues against this perpetual police lineup. Our final mini-link comes from Voice of America, TikTok controversy. Governments can ban TikTok, but they will not be denying Chinese government access to user data unless you are restricting the data flows to data brokers who sell it to foreign governments. EFF's David Green outlines the civil liberties issues at stake. 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 nonprofit 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.