Shining a Spotlight on Digital Rights Heroes: EFF Awards 2025

4 days 17 hours ago

It's been a year full of challenges, but also important victories for digital freedoms. From EFF’s new lawsuit against OPM and DOGE, to launching Rayhunter (our new tool to detect cellular spying), to exposing the censorship of abortion-related content on social media, we’ve been busy! But we’re not the only ones leading the charge. 

On September 10 in San Francisco, we presented the annual EFF Awards to three courageous honorees who are pushing back against unlawful surveillance, championing data privacy, and advancing civil liberties online. This year’s awards went to Just Futures LawErie Meyer, and the Software Freedom Law Center, India

If you missed the celebration in person, you can still watch it live! The full event is posted on YouTube and the Internet Archive, and a transcript of the live captions is also available.  

WATCH NOW

SEE THE EFF AWARDS CEREMONY ON YOUTUBE

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn opened the evening by reflecting on our victories this past year and reiterated how vital EFF’s mission to protect privacy and free speech is today. She also announced her upcoming departure as Executive Director after a decade in the role (and over 25 years of involvement with EFF!). No need to be too sentimental—Cindy isn’t going far. As we like to say: you can check out at any time, but you never really leave the fight. 

Cindy then welcomed one of EFF’s founders, Mitch Kapor, who joked that he had been “brought out of cold storage” for the occasion. Mitch recalled EFF’s early days, when no one knew exactly how constitutional rights would interact with emerging technologies—but everyone understood the stakes. “We understood that the matter of digital rights were very important,” he reflected. And history has proven them right. 

Honoring Defenders of Digital Freedom

The first award of the night, the EFF Award for Defending Digital Freedoms, went to the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.IN). Presenting the award, EFF Civil Liberties Director David Greene emphasized the importance of international partners like SFLC.IN, whose local perspectives enrich and strengthen EFF’s own work. 

SFLC.IN is at the forefront of digital rights in India—challenging internet shutdowns, tracking violations of free expression with their Free Speech Tracker, and training lawyers across the country. Accepting the award, SFLC.IN founder Mishi Choudhary reminded us: “These freedoms are not abstract. They are fought for every day by people, by organizations, and by movements.” 

SFLC.IN founder Mishi Choudhary accepts the EFF Award for Defending Digital Freedoms

Next, EFF Staff Attorney Mario Trujillo introduced the winner of the EFF Award for Protecting Americans’ Data, Erie Meyer. Erie has served as CTO of the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and was a founding member of the U.S. Digital Service. Today, she continues to fight for better government technology and safeguards for sensitive data. 

In her remarks, Erie underscored the urgency of protecting personal data at scale: “We need to protect people’s data the same way we protect this country from national security risks. What’s happening right now is like all the data breaches in history rolled into one. ‘Trust me, bro’ is not a way to handle 550 million Americans’ data.” 

Erie Meyer accepts the EFF Award for Protecting Americans’ Data

Finally, EFF General Counsel Jennifer Lynch introduced the EFF Award for Leading Immigration and Surveillance Litigation, presented to Just Futures Law. Co-founder and Executive Director Paromita Shah accepted on behalf of the organization, which works to challenge the ways surveillance disproportionately harms people of color in the U.S. 

“For years, corporations and law enforcement—including ICE—have been testing the legal limits of their tools on communities of color,” Paromita said in her speech. Just Futures Law has fought back, suing the Department of Homeland Security to reveal its use of AI, and defending activists against surveillance technologies like Clearview AI. 

Just Futures Law Executive Director Paromita Shah accepted the EFF Award for Leading Immigration and Surveillance Litigation

Carrying the Work Forward

We’re honored to shine a spotlight on these award winners, who are doing truly fearless and essential work to protect online privacy and free expression. Their courage reminds us that the fight for civil liberties will be won when we work together—across borders, communities, and movements. 

Join the fight and donate today


A heartfelt thank you to all of the EFF members worldwide who make this work possible. Public support is what allows us to push for a better internet. If you’d like to join the fight, consider becoming an EFF member—you’ll receive special gear as our thanks, and you’ll help power the digital freedom movement. 

And finally, special thanks to the sponsor of this year’s EFF Awards: Electric Capital.

  Catch Up From the Event

Reminder that if you missed the event, you can watch the live recording on our YouTube and the Internet Archive. Plus, a special thank you to our photographers, Alex Schoenfeldt and Carolina Kroon. You can see some of our favorite group photos that were taken during the event, and photos of the awardees with their trophies. 

Christian Romero

EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States

4 days 20 hours ago

The San Francisco Police Department is the latest California law enforcement agency to get caught sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state and federal agencies. EFF and the ACLU of Northern California are calling them out for this direct violation of California law, which has put every driver in the city at risk and is especially dangerous for immigrants, abortion seekers, and other targets of the federal government.

This week, we sent the San Francisco Police Department a demand letter and request for records under the city’s Sunshine Ordinance following the SF Standard’s recent report that SFPD provided non-California agencies direct access to the city’s ALPR database. Reporters uncovered that at least 19 searches run by these agencies were marked as related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). The city’s ALPR database was also searched by law enforcement agencies from Georgia and Texas, both states with severe restrictions on reproductive healthcare.

ALPRs are cameras that capture the movements of vehicles and upload the location of the vehicles to a searchable, shareable database. It is a mass surveillance technology that collects data indiscriminately on every vehicle on the road. As of September 2025, SFPD operates 415 ALPR cameras purchased from the company Flock Safety.

Since 2016, sharing ALPR data with out-of-state or federal agencies—for any reason—violates California law (SB 34). If this data is shared for the purpose of assisting with immigration enforcement, agencies violate an additional California law (SB 54).

In total, the SF Standard found that SFPD had allowed out-of-state cops to run 1.6 million searches of their data. “This sharing violated state law, as well as exposed sensitive driver location information to misuse by the federal government and by states that lack California’s robust privacy protections,” the letter explained.

EFF and ACLU are urging SFPD to launch a thorough audit of its ALPR database, institute new protocols for compliance, and assess penalties and sanctions for any employee found to be sharing ALPR information out of state.

“Your office reportedly claims that agencies outside of California are no longer able to access the SFPD ALPR database,” the letter says. “However, your office has not explained how outside agencies obtained access in the first place or how you plan to prevent future violations of SB 34 and 54.”

As we’ve demonstrated over and over again, many California agencies continue to ignore these laws, exposing sensitive location information to misuse and putting entire communities at risk. As federal agencies continue to carry out violent ICE raids, and many states enforce harsh, draconian restrictions on abortion, ALPR technology is already being used to target and surveil immigrants and abortion seekers. California agencies, including SFPD, have an obligation to protect the rights of Californians, even when those rights are not recognized by other states or the federal government.

See the full letter here: https://www.eff.org/files/2025/09/17/aclu_and_eff_letter_to_sfpd_9.16.2025-1.pdf

Jennifer Pinsof

【JCJ8月集会②】登壇した片山、斎藤、山口3氏のコメント

4 days 23 hours ago
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JCJ

「関東大震災朝鮮人・中国人虐殺102年犠牲者追悼大会」開催 いまだ責任認めぬ日本政府を批判

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