Electronic Frontier Foundation

What Does Electronic Frontier Foundation Mean?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that supports civil liberties and other legal issues pertaining to digital rights. It is an advocacy group dedicated to protecting the First Amendment in telecommunications and computer technology. The EFF defends civil rights mainly in the courts and mobilizes people through its informative action center.

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Techopedia Explains Electronic Frontier Foundation

The EFF is a group of specialized attorneys, resourceful technologists, policy analysts and research activists. Part of the EFF’s mission statement is to ensure that originators of electronic communications have the same political rights as the creators of books, newspapers and other customary media. The group’s objective is to confront cutting-edge digital rights issues by defending privacy, free speech, consumer rights and invention.

The EFF is mostly supported by donations and is an accredited observer of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), one of the 16 specialized United Nations agencies. The WIPO helps protect and promote intellectual property throughout the world. The EFF is also a member of the Global Network Initiative, a non-governmental organization that protects Internet privacy rights for individuals and prevents Internet censorship by authoritarian governments.

The EFF has a wide range of mission statements, which include the following:

  • Monitor changes of the law in legislation
  • Promote laws that better accommodate new technology
  • Maintain a database for current news and educational information
  • Support litigation to assist in protecting, lengthening and reserving First Amendment rights relating to telecommunication and computer technology
  • Support educational events pertaining to civil liberty issues with the communication media
  • Improve communication with policymakers about issues relating to open and free communication
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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…