People ask me about the stickers I have, gear I wear, or medallions I might use as fidget toys when attending conferences. Rarely do I get as many uplifted brows and blank stares as when I describe the EFF organization’s merch I carry ’round.

“What’s the EFF?” I hear that every time.

They’ve been around a while, quietly (or not so quietly) putting ideas and money to work fighting to protect privacy rights online. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has the combination of sophisticated understanding of active harms to our digital rights as well as the ability to articulate why these issues should alarm us.

For instance, they brought to light some spooky decisions made by a favorite international communications company recently. The company? Discord!

We’ve been thinking how fun and free and liberating it is to use it for years.

But the people behind the curtain seek to undermine privacy and introduce ridiculous barriers to access information based on what can become arbitrary enforced age restrictions. So long freedom of speech!

Discord, which many of us use to connect with members of our digital communities, has made the choice to roll out mandatory age verification to use their service. However, Discord is also aware that warehousing users’ government ID’s and/or face scans can mean they are the weak link between the security of our personal information and hackers (from the dark web, or from authoritarian government agents).

It doesn’t matter that they claim they are not keeping personally identifiable information, because how they safeguard our data is murky (at best) and they are simply expecting us all to trust them. Trust them? In this day and age that is laughable.

What’s great about the EFF, is that they work hard to let us know about stuff like this. So that our right to privacy, free speech, and fundamental freedoms don’t get undermined behind our backs without a fight.

I encourage you to learn more about the EFF and join the fight.