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Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

Are they pretty effective?

Most proposals they object to are trying to solve real problems. I almost never see the EFF propose better ways to solve those problems. They just raise objections to everyone else's proposed solutions.

And those objections are often just low effort implausible slippery slope arguments. It is pretty easy to make a slippery slope argument for pretty much anything that has it leading to a dystopian nightmare.

Legislators and policy makers tend to pay more attention to people with solutions, even bad solutions, than to people who just object to everything, especially when those objections are low quality.

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> Are they pretty effective?

One particular area where I get the impression they have a specific measurable impact is in their legal support on certain cases:

https://www.eff.org/legal-victories

Then there is (for example) their practical solution of how to help increase HTTPS adoption with their excellent software tool, CertBot, which helps automate LetsEncrypt certificates:

https://certbot.eff.org

I’d note that it seems to be exceptionally rare for a politically active organisation to be able to both campaign on issues at a high level AND produce technically viable and relevant software tools. Those are two wildly different areas of expertise, and yet they do this, with a clear overarching narrative.

In terms of proposing more specific solutions to problems they protest against, I don’t have a strong view on whether you’re right to emphasise this or not. Maybe there is more they could do here. But in terms of the larger question of “are EFF effective?” I’d say they are demonstrably having a positive impact.

Is it enough? I don’t know. How do you measure it… Can they do better? Almost certainly.

Look at who really funds the EFF.

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/all-effd-up-levine

I'm not one to normally ask for a TLDR; but that article is a dense 10,000 words...

I'm open to new information... so if you know something I don't, is there a more concise answer to "who really funds the EFF"?

Google. That's an interesting summary, missing a lot of good writing and references. Also could explain this latest fly over from a cynical point of view.

I’d say section on the history of its creators/Silicon Valley is more important to understanding the problem, but here’s a couple of relevant paragraphs:

> One likely explanation, Glaser reasoned, was that most of these groups depended on funding from the very same corporations that they should be criticizing. Over the past years, EFF has taken millions in funds from Google and Facebook via straight donations and controversial court payouts that many see as under-the-radar contributions. Hell, Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s foundation gave EFF at least $1.2 million.

> But the reason for EFF’s silence on the Facebook surveillance and influence scandal goes deeper—into the business model of the internet itself, which from the outset has framed user privacy as being threatened by ever-imminent government censorship, as opposed to the protection of users and their data from wanton commercial intrusion and exploitation. Put simply, the lords of the internet care very little about user privacy—what they want to preserve, at the end of the day, is their own commercial license against the specter of government regulation of any kind.

Interesting article. Very long. But revealing. And disappointing. (Truth usually is.) Then the issue arises, who is worth supporting, that will truly defend our digital privacy?

1) free software is viable. The alternatives to practically everything exist technologically.

2) can you provide an example of a 'slippery slope' that did not come to fruition? Rhetorical devices and hyperbole are exactly how you make abstract technical concerns feel real to an average 65 year old congressperson

> Most proposals they object to are trying to solve real problems. I almost never see the EFF propose better ways to solve those problems.

To start, if the problem is 'doing something wrong' vs 'status quo', simply stopping the 'doing something wrong' is a proposal

Nevermind the many concrete recommendations which do occur- support for net neutrality is one clear example i can recall from memory, I'm sure they are others.

Also:

https://www.eff.org/cases

has clear examples of cases impacting policy which eff have been involved in

and:

https://www.eff.org/pages/tools

has some very important tools for internet privacy, some of which which have made a huge impact

> I almost never see the EFF propose better ways to solve those problems.

Why does their need to be a better solution in the case of the Apple CSAM phone scanning debacle? The solution is to just not do it.

If Apple is so worried about illegal material being uploaded to iCloud, they can just modify their iCloud encryption logic to give themselves access and scan the material on their own servers when it's uploaded. They have access to the unencrypted content either way, so it's fundamentally no less private. Actually, it's more private because at least Apple wouldn't be giving themselves access to content on my private property.

> I almost never see the EFF propose better ways to solve those problems. They just raise objections to everyone else's proposed solutions.

That's not their job though, providing solutions and listening to citizen and NGO feedback is the job of the politicians.

If the EFF doesn't suggest something the people who propose the ideas the EFF objects to will continue to have all the influence over politicians.

If you don't propose an alternative then people will see you as just an irritating contrarian.

> Are they pretty effective

Charity Navigator gives them 4 out of 4 stars: https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/043091431.

That is not a measure of how effective they are, but a summary of whether they are filing the necessary disclosure forms and whether their administrative fees are too high or not.

If the EFF lost every single case and donated half their money to their political opponents, then this rating would still be unchanged provided they disclosed everything and didn't take much of a cut for overhead.

AFAIK Charity Navigator takes into account how much money goes to fund raising, management etc, which I would count as efficiency. It's definitely not everything of course.

In recent years slippery slopes have proven more and more to be real...

All you have to do is look at the extension of domestic surveillance laws to see where the slippery slope leads.

"You guys are protesting incorrectly" is among the most useless things you could write. It's Kaepernick all over again but for the tech crowd.

I disagree. Disagreements with Kaepernick were largely that his actions were socially unaccaptable and uneffective. But it was his choice and he didn't need anyone to enable him to do that. (I think Kaepernick was effective personally).

If you think the EFF is not an effective organization, it might be worthwhile explaining your opinion so as the influence charitable donations that could be spent differently. I think the EFF misses the mark pretty frequently, personally. But they're net positive.

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