Launching the Electronic Frontier Alliance | Hacker News Reader

Launching the Electronic Frontier Alliance

eff.org

170 pointsGarbage61 comments

Here's some other ways to support:

To donate: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/button

To Learn: https://www.youtube.com/user/EFForg

To call your representatives: http://TryVoices.com

"There is no reason why digital rights cannot triumph as often as gun rights. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as digital rights activists, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the NRA." – Kurt Vonnegut, mutatis mutandis

Do they grade all congress persons and their opponents?

You can also donate by making your Amazon purchases through http://smile.amazon.com and picking the EFF as your charity of choice. I believe they get 0.5% of each purchase.

I wish the EFF would explain more clearly why digital rights for users are important. Technology in the hands of the few and powerful can lead to authoritarianism, which is part of what makes their work so important. Right now their site only explains that digital rights promote human freedoms. Maybe they don't want to sound too "radical," but for people looking to donate, shouldn't they explain why better privacy, free expression, and digital rights laws are valuable? Love their work though!

I agree. And I think your point touches on one of the problems I have with EFF. I think they're too adverse to upsetting right leaning libertarians by sounding "radical."

But the problem with that is you kind of have to sound radical to explain to people why digital rights are important.

Frankly, it's marginalized groups that have the most to fear. Groups that by nature are unpopular. But once you're positioned as defending unpopular groups well then, that may make your more conservative donors uneasy...

Honestly, I just personally don't have a lot to fear from state and corporate power. But the Muslims who live across the street? Or the queer couple on the next block? Yes, those folks have some very legitimate reasons to fear surveillancs.

I guess I could sum up my problem with EFF by saying that they look and act like people like me. Indeed my social circles intersect with quite a few EFF employees.

But people like me really aren't the first targets of authoritarians, so it's going to be hard to get beyond an abstract, theoretical fear of privacy violations.

I don't actually agree; looking at the recent history, and even current events, the intelligentsia and non-aligned influential people have always been targeted. Their position might grant them more "deference", but on the other hand, they are also more likely to have surveillance used to discredit them.

You even have a recent case of a Ron Paul-admiring right-wing libertarian being convicted of "domestic terrorism by trying to devalue the currency": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_von_NotHaus

Couldn't agree more. More succinct education with facts, rather than FUD, backing up certain viewpoints is needed. For example I found their open letter to the President about encryption to be too much about math to really attract the kind of reader whose opinion we want to change.

I donate to EFF because of the many good projects that help all of us on the net.

To donate now: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/button

Additionally, if you're an Amazon user, Amazon Smile allows you to choose the EFF to donate to. There are Firefox/Chrome plugins that redirect normal amazon.com links to smile.amazon.com links so you don't forget.

In 2013, the initial Snowden documents instantly clarified for me that mass surveillance was the most pressing threat to democracy.

I've been working loosely with EFF and ACLU on Surveillance issues for nearly three years.

The process of transitioning from passive interest to part time activism wasn't easy as no on ramps really existed. I had to build them myself.

I'm hoping EFA will become one of those on ramps.

I like this project. It comes from a good organization fighting for democracy. It will create more interest and activity. The tie-in to political groups that create more fighting than action has me a bit uncomfortable. I like that they start with principles all should have in common. It's very important to come up with clear, basic principles all groups can fight together over against corrupt government. Further, we'll all need to remind them of that as little scuffles break out.

Supporter of EFF here. Just call me skeptical when I read lines like this:

> Bringing together community and campus ... will serve as an increasingly vital hub for activism and organizing

> free expression: people should be able to speak their minds to whomever will listen.

In my experience these types of organizations are not very interested in discussing topics or ideas that might make them feel uncomfortable. See college safe environments as an example.

Why even make this a priority if you don't really mean it?

If you try to engage with people, you might engage with people or you might not. There's no guarantee that anything will come of it. If you don't try to engage with people, there is absolutely a guarantee that nothing will come of it.

In my experience if you spend your time trying to find choirs to preach to, you're wasting your time even when you succeed. Staying away from groups of people because some of them might disagree with you is counterproductive to all participants.

I do not understand, what would the concrete effects of the EFA existence (or participation of a given movent to it) be?

Is there anywhere that an individual could get more involved with these five principles and the EFF? Maybe like a slack group to discuss and promote encryption and privacy?

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy might be worth a look

The people in that subreddit didn't understand how things like encryption and TOR worked last time I was there.

Perhaps you could grace them with some of your superior knowledge.

>across the U.S.

moves along

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