Join The Tom's Hardware AMA With The Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 4

Tom's Hardware and Tom's Guide will be hosting an Ask Me Anything session with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Wednesday, March 4 starting at 12 p.m. EST. The AMA will be open for a full 24 hours, leaving you plenty of time to ask questions about policy, privacy, advocacy, free speech, net neutrality and other topics relevant to your digital rights. 

What: Ask Me Anything – Electronic Frontier Foundation

When: Wednesday, March 4, 12:00 p.m. EST

Where: The Antivirus / Security / Privacy Category of the Tom's Hardware forums (www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2541338/electronic-frontier-foundation-eff.html)

The thread is locked now, but it will be unlocked when the AMA starts. Be sure to bookmark it!

Who: Nate Cardozo, Staff Attorney (username: natecardozo)
Parker Higgins, Director of Copyright Activism (username: xor_eff)
Nadia Kayyali, Activist (username: Nadia_K)
Andrew Crocker, Legal Fellow (username: AndrewEFF)
Jeremy Gillula, Staff Technologist (username: jgillula)
Joseph Bonneau, Technology Fellow (username: jcbeff)

Ask Me Anything Rules:

• All Rules of Conduct apply. • Keep questions direct and to the point. • Avoid opinion bias. • Be respectful of our guests, no insults, no leading questions. • Do not post duplicate questions or repost your question multiple times. • Not all questions may be answered. Questions may not be answered in the order in which they are received or posted.

This AMA will be a tad different from our usual fare. Because the EFF deals in complex issues, we have compiled an explainer about the EFF and what they do.

What is the Electronic Frontier Foundation?
The EFF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit group that advocates for digital rights. They are in favor of privacy, freedom of speech and digital innovation. They use grassroots campaigns, impact litigation and their own technologies to advocate for these causes.

That all sounds cool, but what have they worked on, specifically?
More than we can list here, but we'll list some interesting projects.

The EFF has put together a list of resources regarding the NSA's mass surveillance program, which you can find here.

The organization is also fighting to maintain legal safe harbors for those who jailbreak devices and bypass DRM (as long as it's fair use), and they want the Supreme Court to extend the right to privacy to include genetic material.

They are for net neutrality and an open Internet and have encouraged the public to reach out to the FCC.

The EFF also provides a number of tools (it's most well-known is the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension). You can find out more about those tools here.

More broadly, the EFF has been tackling free speech, anonymity, net neutrality, encryption, privacy, SOPA/PIPA and more.

I want to be educated going into the AMA. What resources can I look at?
You should probably start with the EFF's website.

And I can ask questions about any of these? They won't violate the Tom's Community GRAPES policy?
Absolutely! We encourage you to ask any questions you may have about these topics, policy, advocacy and more.

Because the EFF folks are our guests, no questions about what they do will violate our policy, as long as you keep it civil. Some of these issues are polarizing. Breaking the Ask Me Anything rules may result in a one-day ban from our forums.

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  • misslehead3
    Why isnt this just happening on reddit where you can get a larger audiance and educate more people about your things
    Reply
  • jpishgar
    We have considerable respect for our friends at Reddit, but for it to be "just happening on reddit" restricts the number of people who will see it. At Tom's, we felt it was important enough to approach the EFF for an AMA with our community, but by no means have we claimed exclusive dibs. They way we look at it, the more that know about the issues the better off we'll all be in the long run. :)

    -JP
    Reply
  • f-14
    i already know what i want to ask #1 why the dial up limit to 56k isn't being removed when it was set in place back in the late 90's for "security"

    any why there isn't a mass lawsuit upon every branch of the united states government for breach of our right to privacy which is Amendment III

    "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

    in conjunction with

    Amendment IV

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

    Amendment V

    No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

    an op-ed i had read pretty much sums up why:
    from http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/commbillrights.php

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    Administrator's Note: Please no full copy/pastes of content of external links, it is considered spamming. Thanks!
    Reply
  • skit75
    "Why isnt this just happening on reddit where you can get a larger audiance and educate more people about your things"

    EFF has done Reddit AMAs before. At least the EFF activism team has, including one of tomorrow's AMA speakers, Parker Higgins.
    Reply