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Rebecca MacKinnon

@rebecca-mackinnon.bsky.social

Working for a better internet that enables everyone, everywhere, to thrive. Posting as myself, not representing anyone else’s views.

2,824 Followers  |  1,339 Following  |  117 Posts  |  Joined: 27.11.2024  |  2.0606

Latest posts by rebecca-mackinnon.bsky.social on Bluesky

How Do I Protect Myself Against Malware? Malware, short for “malicious software,” is software that is used to harm computer users. It has a wide-range of capabilities that include: disrupting computer operation gathering sensitive information spying on the owner of the infected device impersonating a user to send spam or fake messages gaining access to private computer...

Governments, law enforcement agencies, and even private citizens use malware to circumvent encryption and to spy on users. Knowing how it works can help you protect yourself. ssd.eff.org/module/how-...

30.11.2025 21:58 — 👍 66    🔁 34    💬 0    📌 1
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Atlas of Surveillance Documenting Police Tech in Our Communities with Open Source Research

Alongside armored vehicles, local police are getting surveillance technology with help from the federal government. Learn what tech law enforcement have in your area with EFF's Atlas of Surveillance, where we’ve documented thousands of examples: atlasofsurveillance.org/

30.11.2025 18:59 — 👍 71    🔁 34    💬 0    📌 2
How to: Manage Your Digital Footprint Search for your name in any search engine and you’ll likely encounter dozens of results, some of which might include personal information like addresses, email accounts, usernames, or family members. Each piece of information is often public and not typically seen as harmful. But together these parts of your identity...

Everything you do online is tracked, saved, and shared for what feels like a lifetime. But there are some steps you can take to minimize what data is out there. ssd.eff.org/module/how-...

30.11.2025 20:02 — 👍 127    🔁 74    💬 1    📌 1

Bummed not to be in SF for this!

30.11.2025 21:16 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
ACLU and EFF Sue a City Blanketed With Flock Surveillance Cameras “Most drivers are unaware that San Jose’s Police Department is tracking their locations and do not know all that their saved location data can reveal about their private lives and activities."

“We think they need a warrant to search these databases,” EFF’s Andrew Crocker told @404Media.co. “The warrant requirement is massive and should help in terms of preventing these searches because they will have to be approved by a judge.”
www.404media.co/aclu-and-ef...

29.11.2025 00:58 — 👍 84    🔁 41    💬 0    📌 2
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Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing It's unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual

Attacks on VPNs are attacks on digital privacy and digital freedom. And that battle is being fought by people who clearly have no idea how any of this technology actually works. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

29.11.2025 19:59 — 👍 187    🔁 91    💬 1    📌 7
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Victory! Court Ends Dragnet Electricity Surveillance Program in For more than a decade, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District coordinated with police to sift through the granular smart meter data of residents without suspicion to find evidence of cannabis

Smart meter data can reveal intimate details inside your home. A court just ruled police can’t run dragnet surveillance on that data. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

25.11.2025 17:52 — 👍 111    🔁 32    💬 2    📌 2
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Think Twice Before Giving Surveillance for the Holidays With the holidays upon us, it's easy to default to giving the tech gifts that retailers tend to push on us this time of year: smart speakers, video doorbells, bluetooth trackers, fitness trackers,

Buying a tech gift for someone this year? Keep in mind what you're opting them into, and take the time to help set up any device you do get them as privately and securely as possible. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

23.11.2025 16:59 — 👍 115    🔁 48    💬 0    📌 3
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The Trump Administration’s Order on AI Is Deeply Misguided Widespread news reports indicate that President Donald Trump’s administration has prepared an executive order to punish states that have passed laws attempting to address harms from artificial

Stopping states from acting on AI will stop progress. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

22.11.2025 22:58 — 👍 89    🔁 19    💬 0    📌 0
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Lawsuit Challenges San Jose’s Warrantless ALPR Mass Surveillance SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose and its police department routinely violate the California Constitution by conducting warrantless searches of the stored records of millions of drivers’ private habits, mov...

I love our new lawsuit! We're suing the US government to bring some light to its jawboning of online platform to remove ICE tracking apps. Awesome work @aaronmackey.bsky.social and @mariotrujillo.bsky.social www.eff.org/press/releas...

20.11.2025 16:55 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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How Cops Are Using Flock Safety's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters Through an analysis of 10 months of nationwide searches on Flock Safety's servers, we discovered that more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies ran hundreds of searches through Flock's national

Everyone should have the right to speak up against injustice without ending up in a database. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

22.11.2025 15:01 — 👍 144    🔁 59    💬 3    📌 6
Choosing Your Tools With so many companies and websites offering tools geared towards helping individuals improve their own digital security, how do you choose the tools that are right for you? We don’t have a foolproof list of tools that can defend you (though you can see some common choices in our Tool...

Choosing your security and privacy tools is an ongoing process, not a one-time purchase or download. ssd.eff.org/en/module/c...

11.11.2025 22:58 — 👍 50    🔁 14    💬 1    📌 0
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It’s time to name and shame: Let us know 2025’s worst transparency offenders with a Foilies nomination! Brought to you by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock, the Foilies “honor” the institutions and individuals most determined to keep the public in the dark.

Name and shame the most despicable defiers of the public’s Right to Know! Nominations for this year’s Foilies are now open! www.muckrock.com/news/archiv...

20.11.2025 00:00 — 👍 61    🔁 27    💬 5    📌 3
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Defend Privacy and Free Speech Don’t let tyrants co-opt tech. Join EFF and help fight back.

Law enforcement has begun to rival intelligence agencies in acquiring privacy-invasive technologies. EFF pushes back in the courts, in the legislatures, and on the streets. But we need your support: supporters.eff.org/donate/tbc

09.11.2025 23:02 — 👍 92    🔁 40    💬 0    📌 1
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Application Gatekeeping: An Ever-Expanding Pathway to Internet Apple and Google use their app stores to shape what apps you can and cannot have on devices, but now more governments—including the U.S. government—are using legal and extralegal tools to lean on

Google's new global ID registration system means more risk for developers, and fewer options for users. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

08.11.2025 16:00 — 👍 66    🔁 29    💬 3    📌 1
How to: Manage Your Digital Footprint Search for your name in any search engine and you’ll likely encounter dozens of results, some of which might include personal information like addresses, email accounts, usernames, or family members. Each piece of information is often public and not typically seen as harmful. But together these parts of your identity...

Everything you do online is tracked, saved, and shared for what feels like a lifetime. But there are some steps you can take to minimize what data is out there. ssd.eff.org/module/how-...

19.10.2025 21:02 — 👍 221    🔁 97    💬 1    📌 6
View from the forest floor looking straight up at the sky through tall trees in autumn. Multiple tree trunks rise from the edges of the frame toward the center, creating a circular, radial pattern like spokes of a wheel. The trees' canopy displays vibrant fall foliage in shades of green, yellow, orange, and red leaves (Location: McRae Point Provincial Park).

View from the forest floor looking straight up at the sky through tall trees in autumn. Multiple tree trunks rise from the edges of the frame toward the center, creating a circular, radial pattern like spokes of a wheel. The trees' canopy displays vibrant fall foliage in shades of green, yellow, orange, and red leaves (Location: McRae Point Provincial Park).

@thecray.bsky.social “The Infinite Exhale”

Genre(s): Nature Photography, Landscape Photography

#autumn
#nature #fall #autumnvibes #fallvibes #naturecore #forestbathing #foresttherapy #lookingup #canopyview

18.10.2025 01:27 — 👍 51    🔁 4    💬 2    📌 0
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The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are some steps you can take to…

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are steps you can take to evade it.

18.10.2025 15:15 — 👍 587    🔁 338    💬 16    📌 9
Man in an inflatable light blue shark suit on the sidewalk with a handmade sign that reads Nuremberg 2.0

Man in an inflatable light blue shark suit on the sidewalk with a handmade sign that reads Nuremberg 2.0

No Kings event DC.

18.10.2025 17:25 — 👍 1475    🔁 279    💬 19    📌 11
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Meet Rayhunter: A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Rayhunter is a new open source tool we’ve created that runs off an affordable mobile hotspot that we hope empowers everyone, regardless of technical skill, to help search out cell-site simulators

If you are going to a No Kings protest this weekend, be sure to review our Surveillance Self Defense guide for attending a protest and bring Rayhunter along for the ride! ssd.eff.org/module/atte.... eff.org/rayhunter.

17.10.2025 22:04 — 👍 245    🔁 170    💬 6    📌 12

Wow. Big wow. And nice to get that out before the courts shut down.

17.10.2025 23:43 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Privacy Loves Company Most of the internet’s blessings—the opportunities for communities to connect despite physical borders and oppressive controls, the avenues to hold the powerful accountable without immediate

Good privacy decisions begin with proper knowledge about your situation—and we’ve got you covered. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

18.10.2025 18:01 — 👍 47    🔁 10    💬 0    📌 0
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Street Level Surveillance EFF Presents: A Field Guide to Police Surveillance

Learn about the spying technologies police are deploying in our communities at EFF's Street-Level Surveillance hub.
www.eff.org/sls

14.10.2025 22:04 — 👍 88    🔁 39    💬 0    📌 1

Please donate today!!

14.10.2025 17:28 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Privacy Loves Company Most of the internet’s blessings—the opportunities for communities to connect despite physical borders and oppressive controls, the avenues to hold the powerful accountable without immediate

Good privacy decisions begin with proper knowledge about your situation—and we’ve got you covered. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

12.10.2025 21:00 — 👍 69    🔁 16    💬 0    📌 0
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EFF and Other Organizations: Keep Key Intelligence Positions Senate In a joint letter to the ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, EFF has joined with 20 other organizations, including the ACLU, Brennan Center, CDT, Asian Americans

The Senate Intelligence Authorization Act contains a major change that would allow the CIA’s top lawyer to avoid the Senate confirmation process. In an era of creeping authoritarianism this could hasten the Intelligence Community’s use as a tool of political espionage. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

12.10.2025 16:58 — 👍 135    🔁 51    💬 2    📌 2
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Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

I jusr learned abou this fantastic project. @unbreaking.org

12.10.2025 00:22 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Gen Z held an anti-social media event. Here's how they heard about it. Led by Gen Z, Delete Day encouraged attendees to get rid of social media apps on their smartphones.

Led by Gen Z, Delete Day encouraged attendees to get rid of social media apps on their smartphones.

11.10.2025 21:25 — 👍 19    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 1
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EFF Austin: Organizing and Making a Difference in Central Texas Austin, Texas is a major tech hub with a population that’s engaged in advocacy and paying attention. Since 1991, EFF-Austin an independent nonprofit civil liberties organization, has been the

Since 1991 EFF Austin has been the proverbial beacon alerting those in central Texas to the possibilities and implications of modern technology. See how they're organizing for digital rights: www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

11.10.2025 18:59 — 👍 37    🔁 10    💬 0    📌 0

Surveillance harms workers even when privacy technology is used. New paper from @datasociety.bsky.social @powerswitchaction.org & Coworker: datasociety.net/library/the...

11.10.2025 21:01 — 👍 81    🔁 23    💬 0    📌 2

@rebecca-mackinnon is following 20 prominent accounts