Another year has come and gone, and with it, thousands of data breaches that affect millions of people. The question these days is less, Is my information in a data breach this year? and more How many data breaches had my information in them this year? 

Some data breaches are more noteworthy than others. Where one might affect a small number of people and include little useful information, like a name or email address, others might include data ranging from a potential medical diagnosis to specific location information. To catalog and talk about these breaches we created the Breachies, a series of tongue-in-cheek awards, to highlight the most egregious data breaches. 

In most cases, if these companies practiced a privacy first approach and focused on data minimization, only collecting and storing what they absolutely need to provide the services they promise, many data breaches would be far less harmful to the victims. But instead, companies gobble up as much as they can, store it for as long as possible, and inevitably at some point someone decides to poke in and steal that data. Once all that personal data is stolen, it can be used against the breach victims for identity theft, ransomware attacks, and to send unwanted spam. It has become such a common occurrence that it’s easy to lose track of which breaches affect you, and just assume your information is out there somewhere. Still, a few steps can help protect your information.

With that, let’s get to the awards.

The Winners

• The Say Something Without Saying Anything Award: Mixpanel
• The We Still Told You So Award: Discord
• The Tea for Two Award: Tea Dating Advice and TeaOnHer
• The Just Stop Using Tracking Tech Award: Blue Shield of California
• The Hacker's Hall Pass Award: PowerSchool
• The Worst. Customer. Service. Ever. Award: TransUnion
• The Annual Microsoft Screwed Up Again Award: Microsoft
• The I Didn’t Even Know You Had My Information Award: Gravy Analytics
• The Keeping Up With My Cybertruck Award: Teslamate
• The Disorder in the Courts Award: PACER
• The Only Stalkers Allowed Award: Catwatchful
• The Why We’re Still Stuck on Unique Passwords Award: Plex
• The Uh, Yes, Actually, I Have Been Pwned Award: Troy Hunt’s Mailing List
• (Dis)honorable Mentions

The Say Something Without Saying Anything Award: Mixpanel

We’ve long warned that apps delivering your personal information to third-parties, even if they aren’t the ad networks directly driving surveillance capitalism, presents risks and a salient target for hackers. The more widespread your data, the more places attackers can go to find it. Mixpanel, a data analytics company which collects information on users of any app which incorporates its SDK, suffered a major breach in November this year. The service has been used by a wide array of companies, including the Ring Doorbell App, which we reported on back in 2020 delivering a trove of information to Mixpanel, and PornHub, which despite not having worked with the company since 2021, had its historical record of paying subscribers breached.    

There’s a lot we still don’t know about this data breach, in large part because the announcement about it is so opaque, leaving reporters with unanswered questions about how many were affected, if the hackers demanded a ransom, and if Mixpanel employee accounts utilized standard security best practices. One thing is clear, though: the breach was enough for OpenAI to drop them as a provider, disclosing critical details on the breach in a blog post that Mixpanel’s own announcement conveniently failed to mention.

The worst part is that, as a data analytics company providing libraries which are included in a broad range of apps, we can surmise that the vast majority of people affected by this breach have no direct relationship with Mixpanel, and likely didn’t even know that their devices were delivering data to the company. These people deserve better than vague statements by companies which profit off of (and apparently insufficiently secure) their data.

The We Still Told You So Award: Discord

Last year, AU10TIX won our first The We Told You So Award because as we predicted in 2023, age verification mandates would inevitably lead to more data breaches, potentially exposing government IDs as well as information about the sites that a user visits. Like clockwork, they did. It was our first We Told You So Breachies award, but we knew it wouldn’t be the last. 

Unfortunately, there is growing political interest in mandating identity or age verification before allowing people to access social media or adult material. EFF and others oppose these plans because they threaten both speech and privacy. 

Nonetheless, this year’s winner of The We Still Told You So Breachies Award is the messaging app, Discord — once known mainly for gaming communities, it now hosts more than 200 million monthly active users and is widely used to host fandom and community channels. 

In September of this year, much of Discord’s age verification data was breached — including users’ real names, selfies, ID documents, email and physical addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and other contact details or messages provided to customer support. In some cases, “limited billing information” was also accessed—including payment type, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and purchase histories. 

Technically though, it wasn’t Discord itself that was hacked but their third-party customer support provider — a company called Zendesk—that was compromised, allowing attackers to access Discord’s user data. Either way, it’s Discord users who felt the impact. 

The Tea for Two Award: Tea Dating Advice and TeaOnHer

Speaking of age verification, Tea, the dating safety app for women, had a pretty horrible year for data breaches. The app allows users to anonymously share reviews and safety information about their dates with men—helping keep others safe by noting red flags they saw during their date.

Since Tea is aimed at women’s safety and dating advice, the app asks new users to upload a selfie or photo ID to verify their identity and gender to create an account. That’s some pretty sensitive information that the app is asking you to trust it with! Back in July, it was reported that 72,000 images had been leaked from the app, including 13,000 images of photo IDs and 59,000 selfies. These photos were found via an exposed database hosted on Google’s mobile app development platform, Firebase. And if that isn’t bad enough, just a week later a second breach exposed private messages between users, including messages with phone numbers, abortion planning, and discussions about cheating partners. This breach included more than 1.1 million messages from early 2023 all the way to mid-2025, just before the breach was reported. Tea released a statement shortly after, temporarily disabling the chat feature.

But wait, there’s more. A completely different app based on the same idea, but for men, also suffered a data breach. TeaOnHer failed to protect similar sensitive data. In August, TechCrunch discovered that user information — including emails, usernames, and yes, those photo IDs and selfies — was accessible through a publicly available web address. Even worse? TechCrunch also found the email address and password the app’s creator uses to access the admin page.

Breaches like this are one of the reasons that EFF shouts from the rooftops against laws that mandate user verification with an ID or selfie. Every company that collects this information becomes a target for data breaches — and if a breach happens, you can’t just change your face. 

The Just Stop Using Tracking Tech Award: Blue Shield of California

Another year, another data breach caused by online tracking tools. 

In April, Blue Shield of California revealed that it had shared 4.7 million people’s health data with Google by misconfiguring Google Analytics on its website. The data, which may have been used for targeted advertising, included: people’s names, insurance plan details, medical service providers, and patient financial responsibility. The health insurance company shared this information with Google for nearly three years before realizing its mistake.

If this data breach sounds familiar, it’s because it is: last year’s Just Stop Using Tracking Tech award also went to a healthcare company that leaked patient data through tracking code on its website. Tracking tools remain alarmingly common on healthcare websites, even after years of incidents like this one. These tools are marketed as harmless analytics or marketing solutions, but can expose people’s sensitive data to advertisers and data brokers. 

EFF’s free Privacy Badger extension can block online trackers, but you shouldn’t need an extension to stop companies from harvesting and monetizing your medical data. We need a strong, federal privacy law and ban on online behavioral advertising to eliminate the incentives driving companies to keep surveilling us online. 

The Hacker's Hall Pass Award: PowerSchool

 In December 2024, PowerSchool, the largest provider of student information systems in the U.S., gave hackers access to sensitive student data. The breach compromised personal information of over 60 million students and teachers, including Social Security numbers, medical records, grades, and special education data. Hackers exploited PowerSchool’s weak security—namely, stolen credentials to their internal customer support portal—and gained unfettered access to sensitive data stored by school districts across the country.

PowerSchool failed to implement basic security measures like multi-factor authentication, and the breach affected districts nationwide. In Texas alone, over 880,000 individuals’ data was exposed, prompting the state's attorney general to file a lawsuit, accusing PowerSchool of misleading its customers about security practices. Memphis-Shelby County Schools also filed suit, seeking damages for the breach and the cost of recovery.

While PowerSchool paid hackers an undisclosed sum to prevent data from being published, the company’s failure to protect its users’ data raises serious concerns about the security of K-12 educational systems. Adding to the saga, a Massachusetts student, Matthew Lane, pleaded guilty in October to hacking and extorting PowerSchool for $2.85 million in Bitcoin. Lane faces up to 17 years in prison for cyber extortion and aggravated identity theft, a reminder that not all hackers are faceless shadowy figures — sometimes they’re just a college kid.

The Worst. Customer. Service. Ever. Award: TransUnion

Credit reporting giant TransUnion had to notify its customers this year that a hack nabbed the personal information of 4.4 million people. How'd the attackers get in? According to a letter filed with the Maine Attorney General's office obtained by TechCrunch, the problem was a “third-party application serving our U.S. consumer support operations.” That's probably not the kind of support they were looking for. 

TransUnion said in a Texas filing that attackers swept up “customers’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers” in the breach, though it was quick to point out in public statements that the hackers did not access credit reports or “core credit data.” While it certainly could have been worse, this breach highlights the many ways that hackers can get their hands on information. Coming in through third-parties, companies that provide software or other services to businesses, is like using an unguarded side door, rather than checking in at the front desk. Companies, particularly those who keep sensitive personal information, should be sure to lock down customer information at all the entry points. After all, their decisions about who they do business with ultimately carry consequences for all of their customers — who have no say in the matter.

The Annual Microsoft Screwed Up Again Award: Microsoft

Microsoft is a company nobody feels neutral about. Especially in the infosec world. The myriad software vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products over the decades has been a source of frustration and also great financial rewards for both attackers and defenders. Yet still, as the saying goes: “nobody ever got fired for buying from Microsoft.” But perhaps, the times, they are a-changing. 

In July 2025, it was revealed that a zero-day security vulnerability in Microsoft’s flagship file sharing and collaboration software, SharePoint, had led to the compromise of over 400 organizations, including major corporations and sensitive government agencies such as the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the federal agency responsible for maintaining and developing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons. The attack was attributed to three different Chinese government linked hacking groups. Amazingly, days after the vulnerability was first reported, there were still thousands of vulnerable self-hosted Sharepoint servers online. 

Zero-days happen to tech companies, large and small. It’s nearly impossible to write even moderately complex software that is bug and exploit free, and Microsoft can’t exactly be blamed for having a zero-day in their code. But when one company is the source of so many zero-days consistently for so many years, one must start wondering whether they should put all their eggs (or data) into a basket that company made. Perhaps if Microsoft’s monopolistic practices had been reined in back in the 1990s we wouldn’t be in a position today where Sharepoint is the defacto file sharing software for so many major organizations. And maybe, just maybe, this is further evidence that tech monopolies and centralization of data aren’t just bad for consumer rights, civil liberties, and the economy—but also for cybersecurity. 

The Silver Globe Award: Flat Earth Sun, Moon & Zodiac

Look, we’ll keep this one short: in October of last year, researchers found security issues in the flat earther app, Flat Earth, Sun, Moon, & Clock. In March of 2025, that breach was confirmed. What’s most notable about this, aside from including a surprising amount of information about gender, name, email addresses and date of birth, is that it also included users’ location info, including latitude and longitude. Huh, interesting.

The I Didn’t Even Know You Had My Information Award: Gravy Analytics

In January, hackers claimed they stole millions of people’s location history from a company that never should’ve had it in the first place: location data broker Gravy Analytics. The data included timestamped location coordinates tied to advertising IDs, which can reveal exceptionally sensitive information. In fact, researchers who reviewed the leaked data found it could be used to identify military personnel and gay people in countries where homosexuality is illegal. 

The breach of this sensitive data is bad, but Gravy Analytics’s business model of regularly harvesting and selling it is even worse. Despite the fact that most people have never heard of them, Gravy Analytics has managed to collect location information from a billion phones a day. The company has sold this data to other data brokers, makers of police surveillance tools, and the U.S. government. 

How did Gravy Analytics get this location information from people’s phones? The data broker industry is notoriously opaque, but this breach may have revealed some of Gravy Analytics’ sources. The leaked data referenced thousands of apps, including Microsoft apps, Candy Crush, Tinder, Grindr, MyFitnessPal, pregnancy trackers and religious-focused apps. Many of these app developers said they had no relationship with Gravy Analytics. Instead, expert analysis of the data suggests it was harvested through the advertising ecosystem already connected to most apps. This breach provides further evidence that online behavioral advertising fuels the surveillance industry. 

Whether or not they get hacked, location data brokers like Gravy Analytics threaten our privacy and security. Follow EFF’s guide to protecting your location data and help us fight for legislation to dismantle the data broker industry. 

The Keeping Up With My Cybertruck Award: Teslamate

TeslaMate, a tool meant to track Tesla vehicle data (but which is not owned or operated by Tesla itself), has become a cautionary tale about data security. In August, a security researcher found more than 1,300 self-hosted TeslaMate dashboards were exposed online, leaking sensitive information such as vehicle location, speed, charging habits, and even trip details. In essence, your Cybertruck became the star of its own Keeping Up With My Cybertruck reality show, except the audience wasn’t made up of fans interested in your lifestyle, just random people with access to the internet.

TeslaMate describes itself as “that loyal friend who never forgets anything!” — but its lack of proper security measures makes you wish it would. This breach highlights how easily location data can become a tool for harassment or worse, and the growing need for legislation that specifically protects consumer location data. Without stronger regulations around data privacy, sensitive location details like where you live, work, and travel can easily be accessed by malicious actors, leaving consumers with no recourse.

The Disorder in the Courts Award: PACER

Confidentiality is a core principle in the practice of law. But this year a breach of confidentiality came from an unexpected source: a breach of the federal court filing system. In August, Politico reported that hackers infiltrated the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system, which uses the same database as PACER, a searchable public database for court records. Of particular concern? The possibility that the attack exposed the names of confidential informants involved in federal cases from multiple court districts. Courts across the country acted quickly to set up new processes to avoid the possibility of further compromises.

The leak followed a similar incident in 2021 and came on the heels of a warning to Congress that the file system is more than a little creaky. In fact, an IT official from the federal court system told the House Judiciary Committee that both systems are “unsustainable due to cyber risks, and require replacement.”

The Only Stalkers Allowed Award: Catwatchful

Just like last year, a stalkerware company was subject to a data breach that really should prove once and for all that these companies must be stopped. In this case, Catwatchful is an Android spyware company that sells itself as a “child monitoring app.” Like other products in this category, it’s designed to operate covertly while uploading the contents of a victim’s phone, including photos, messages, and location information.

This data breach was particularly harmful, as it included not just the email addresses and passwords on the customers who purchased the app to install on a victim’s phone, but also the data from the phones of 26,000 victims’ devices, which could include the victims’ photos, messages, and real-time location data.

This was a tough award to decide on because Catwatchful wasn’t the only stalkerware company that was hit this year. Similar breaches to SpyX, Cocospy, and Spyic were all strong contenders. EFF has worked tirelessly to raise the alarm on this sort of software, and this year worked with AV Comparatives to test the stalkerware detection rate on Android of various major antivirus apps.

The Why We’re Still Stuck on Unique Passwords Award: Plex

Every year, we all get a reminder about why using unique passwords for all our accounts is crucial for protecting our online identities. This time around, the award goes to Plex, who experienced a data breach that included customer emails, usernames, and hashed passwords (which is a fancy way of saying passwords are scrambled through an algorithm, but it is possible they could still be deciphered).

If this all sounds vaguely familiar to you for some reason, that’s because a similar issue also happened to Plex in 2022, affecting 15 million users. Whoops.

This is why it is important to use unique passwords everywhere. A password manager, including one that might be free on your phone or browser, makes this much easier to do. Likewise, credential stuffing illustrates why it’s important to use two-factor authentication. Here’s how to turn that on for your Plex account.

The Uh, Yes, Actually, I Have Been Pwned Award: Troy Hunt’s Mailing List

Troy Hunt, the person behind Have I Been Pwned? and who has more experience with data breaches than just about anyone, also proved that anyone can be pwned. In a blog post, he details what happened to his mailing list:

You know when you're really jet lagged and really tired and the cogs in your head are just moving that little bit too slow? That's me right now, and the penny has just dropped that a Mailchimp phish has grabbed my credentials, logged into my account and exported the mailing list for this blog.

And he continues later:

I'm enormously frustrated with myself for having fallen for this, and I apologise to anyone on that list. Obviously, watch out for spam or further phishes and check back here or via the social channels in the nav bar above for more.

The whole blog is worth a read as a reminder that phishing can get anyone, and we thank Troy Hunt for his feedback on this and other breaches to include this year.

Tips to Protect Yourself

Data breaches are such a common occurrence that it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do, nor any point in trying. But privacy isn’t dead. While some information about you is almost certainly out there, that’s no reason for despair. In fact, it’s a good reason to take action.

There are steps you can take right now with all your online accounts to best protect yourself from the the next data breach (and the next, and the next):

• Use unique passwords on all your online accounts. This is made much easier by using a password manager, which can generate and store those passwords for you. When you have a unique password for every website, a data breach of one site won’t cascade to others.
• Use two-factor authentication when a service offers it. Two-factor authentication makes your online accounts more secure by requiring additional proof (“factors”) alongside your password when you log in. While two-factor authentication adds another step to the login process, it’s a great way to help keep out anyone not authorized, even if your password is breached.
• Delete old accounts: Sometimes, you’ll get a data breach notification for an account you haven’t used in years. This can be a nice reminder to delete that account, but it’s better to do so before a data breach happens, when possible. Try to make it a habit to go through and delete old accounts once a year or so. 
• Freeze your credit. Many experts recommend freezing your credit with the major credit bureaus as a way to protect against the sort of identity theft that’s made possible by some data breaches. Freezing your credit prevents someone from opening up a new line of credit in your name without additional information, like a PIN or password, to “unfreeze” the account. This might sound absurd considering they can’t even open bank accounts, but if you have kids, you can freeze their credit too.
• Keep a close eye out for strange medical bills. With the number of health companies breached this year, it’s also a good idea to watch for healthcare fraud. The Federal Trade Commission recommends watching for strange bills, letters from your health insurance company for services you didn’t receive, and letters from debt collectors claiming you owe money. 

(Dis)Honorable Mentions

According to one report, 2025 had already seen 2,563 data breaches by October, which puts the year on track to be one of the worst by the sheer number of breaches.

We did not investigate every one of these 2,500-plus data breaches, but we looked at a lot of them, including the news coverage and the data breach notification letters that many state Attorney General offices host on their websites. We can’t award the coveted Breachies Award to every company that was breached this year. Still, here are some (dis)honorable mentions we wanted to highlight:

Salesforce, F5, Oracle, WorkComposer, Raw, Stiizy, Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, Hello Cake, Lovense, Kettering Health, LexisNexis, WhatsApp, Nexar, McDonalds, Congressional Budget Office, Doordash, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Columbia University, Hertz, HCRG Care Group, Lexipol, Color Dating, Workday, Aflac, and Coinbase. And a special nod to last minute entrants Home Depot, 700Credit, and Petco.

What now? Companies need to do a better job of only collecting the information they need to operate, and properly securing what they store. Also, the U.S. needs to pass comprehensive privacy protections. At the very least, we need to be able to sue companies when these sorts of breaches happen (and while we’re at it, it’d be nice if we got more than $5.21 checks in the mail). EFF has long advocated for a strong federal privacy law that includes a private right of action.

If you’re a Californian, there are a few new state laws that you should know will be going into effect in the new year. EFF has worked hard in Sacramento this session to advance bills that protect privacy, fight surveillance, and promote transparency.

California’s legislature runs in a two-year cycle, meaning that it’s currently halftime for legislators. As we prepare for the next year of the California legislative session in January, it’s a good time to showcase what’s happened so far—and what’s left to do.

Wins Worth Celebrating

In a win for every Californian’s privacy rights, we were happy to support A.B. 566 (Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal). This is a common-sense law that makes California’s main consumer data privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act, more user-friendly. It requires that browsers support people’s rights to send opt-out signals, such as the global opt-out in Privacy Badger, to businesses. Managing your privacy as an individual can be a hard job, and EFF wants stronger laws that make it easier for you to do so.

Additionally, we were proud to advance government transparency by supporting A.B. 1524 (Judiciary Committee), which allows members of the public to make copies of public court records using their own devices, such as cell-phone cameras and overhead document scanners, without paying fees.

We also supported two bills that will improve law enforcement accountability at a time when we desperately need it. S.B. 627 (Senator Scott Wiener) prohibits law enforcement officers from wearing masks to avoid accountability (The Trump administration has sued California over this law). We also supported S.B. 524 (Asm. Jesse Arreguín), which requires law enforcement to disclose when a police report was written using artificial intelligence.

On the To-Do List for Next Year

On the flip side, we also stopped some problematic bills from becoming law. This includes S.B. 690 (Sen. Anna Caballero), which we dubbed the Corporate Coverup Act. This bill would have gutted California’s wiretapping statute by allowing businesses to ignore those privacy rights for “any business purpose.” Working with several coalition partners, we were able to keep that bill from moving forward in 2025. We do expect to see it come back in 2026, and are ready to fight back against those corporate business interests.

And, of course, not every fight ended in victory. There are still many areas where we have work left to do. California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill we supported, S.B. 7, which would have given workers in California greater transparency into how their employers use artificial intelligence and was sponsored by the California Federation of Labor Unions. S.B. 7  was vetoed in response to concerns from companies including Uber and Lyft, but we expect to continue working with the labor community on the ways AI affects the workplace in 2026.

Trends of Note

California continued a troubling years-long trend of lawmakers pushing problematic proposals that would require every internet user to verify their age to access information—often by relying on privacy-invasive methods to do so. Earlier this year EFF sent a letter to the California legislature expressing grave concerns with lawmakers’ approach to regulating young people’s ability to speak online. We continue to raise these concerns, and would welcome working with any lawmaker in California on a better solution.

We also continue to keep a close eye on government data sharing. On this front, there is some good news. Several of the bills we supported this year sought to place needed safeguards on the ways various government agencies in California share data. These include: A.B. 82 (Asm. Chris Ward) and S.B. 497 (Wiener), which would add privacy protections to data collected by the state about those who may be receiving gender-affirming or reproductive health care; A.B. 1303 (Asm. Avelino Valencia), which prohibits warrantless data sharing from California’s low-income broadband program to immigration and other government officials; and S.B. 635 (Sen. Maria Elena Durazo), which places similar limits on data collected from sidewalk vendors.

We are also heartened to see California correct course on broad government data sharing. Last session, we opposed A.B. 518 (Asm. Buffy Wicks), which let state agencies ignore existing state privacy law to allow broader information sharing about people eligible for CalFresh—the state’s federally funded food assistance program. As we’ve seen, the federal government has since sought data from food assistance programs to use for other purposes. We were happy to have instead supported A.B. 593 this year, also authored by Asm. Wicks—which reversed course on that data sharing.

We hope to see this attention to the harms of careless government data sharing continue. EFF’s sponsored bill this year, A.B. 1337, would update and extend vital privacy safeguards present at the state agency level to counties and cities. These local entities today collect enormous amounts of data and administer programs that weren’t contemplated when the original law was written in 1977. That information should be held to strong privacy standards.

We’ve been fortunate to work with Asm. Chris Ward, who is also the chair of the LGBTQ Caucus in the legislature, on that bill. The bill stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 2025 legislative session, but we plan to bring it back in the next session with a renewed sense of urgency.

Widespread news reports indicate that President Donald Trump’s administration has prepared an executive order to punish states that have passed laws attempting to address harms from artificial intelligence (AI) systems. According to a draft published by news outlets, this order would direct federal agencies to bring legal challenges to state AI regulations that the administration deems “onerous,”  to restrict funding to those states that have these laws, and to adopt new federal law that overrides state AI laws.

This approach is deeply misguided.

As we’ve said before, the fact that states are regulating AI is often a good thing. Left unchecked, company and government use of automated decision-making systems in areas such as housing, health care, law enforcement, and employment have already caused discriminatory outcomes based on gender, race, and other protected statuses.

While state AI laws have not been perfect, they are genuine attempts to address harms that people across the country face from certain uses of AI systems right now. Given the tone of the Trump Administration’s draft order, it seems clear that the preemptive federal legislation backed by this administration will not stop ways that automated decision making systems can result in discriminatory decisions.

For example, a copy of the draft order published by Politico specifically names the Colorado AI Act as an example of supposedly “onerous” legislation. As we said in our analysis of Colorado’s law, it is a limited but crucial step—one that needs to be strengthened to protect people more meaningfully from AI harms. It is possible to guard against harms and support innovation and expression. Ignoring the harms that these systems can cause when used in discriminatory ways is not the way to do that.

Again: stopping states from acting on AI will stop progress. Proposals such as the executive order, or efforts to put a broad moratorium on state AI laws into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), will hurt us all. Companies that produce AI and automated decision-making software have spent millions in state capitals and in Congress to slow or roll back legal protections regulating artificial intelligence. If reports about the Trump administration’s executive order are true, those efforts are about to get a supercharged ally in the federal government.

And all of us will pay the price.

Powerful institutions are using automated decision-making against us. Landlords use it to decide who gets a home. Insurance companies use it to decide who gets health care. ICE uses it to decide who must submit to location tracking by electronic monitoring. Bosses use it to decide who gets fired, and to predict who is organizing a union or planning to quit. Bosses even use AI to assess the body language and voice tone of job candidates. And these systems often discriminate based on gender, race, and other protected statuses.

Fortunately, workers, patients, and renters are resisting.

In 2024, Colorado enacted a limited but crucial step forward against automated abuse: the AI Act (S.B. 24-205). We commend the labor, digital rights, and other advocates who have worked to enact and protect it. Colorado recently delayed the Act’s effective date to June 30, 2026.

EFF looks forward to enforcement of the Colorado AI Act, opposes weakening or further delaying it, and supports strengthening it.

What the Colorado AI Act Does

The Colorado AI Act is a good step in the right direction. It regulates “high risk AI systems,” meaning machine-based technologies that are a “substantial factor” in deciding whether a person will have access to education, employment, loans, government services, healthcare, housing, insurance, or legal services. An AI-system is a “substantial factor” in those decisions if it assisted in the decision and could alter its outcome. The Act’s protections include transparency, due process, and impact assessments.

The Act is a solid foundation. Still, EFF urges Colorado to strengthen it

Transparency. The Act requires “developers” (who create high-risk AI systems) and “deployers” (who use them) to provide information to the general public and affected individuals about these systems, including their purposes, the types and sources of inputs, and efforts to mitigate known harms. Developers and deployers also must notify people if they are being subjected to these systems. Transparency protections like these can be a baseline in a comprehensive regulatory program that facilitates enforcement of other protections.

Due process. The Act empowers people subjected to high-risk AI systems to exercise some self-help to seek a fair decision about them. A deployer must notify them of the reasons for the decision, the degree the system contributed to the decision, and the types and sources of inputs. The deployer also must provide them an opportunity to correct any incorrect inputs. And the deployer must provide them an opportunity to appeal, including with human review.

Impact assessments. The Act requires a developer, before providing a high-risk AI system to a deployer, to disclose known or reasonably foreseeable discriminatory harms by the system, and the intended use of the AI. In turn, the Act requires a deployer to complete an annual impact assessment for each of its high-risk AI systems, including a review of whether they cause algorithmic discrimination. A deployer also must implement a risk management program that is proportionate to the nature and scope of the AI, the sensitivity of the data it processes, and more. Deployers must regularly review their risk management programs to identify and mitigate any known or reasonably foreseeable risks of algorithmic discrimination. Impact assessment regulations like these can helpfully place a proactive duty on developers and deployers to find and solve problems, as opposed to doing nothing until an individual subjected to a high-risk system comes forward to exercise their rights.

How the Colorado AI Act Should Be Strengthened

The Act is a solid foundation. Still, EFF urges Colorado to strengthen it, especially in its enforcement mechanisms.

Private right of action. The Colorado AI Act grants exclusive enforcement to the state attorney general. But no regulatory agency will ever have enough resources to investigate and enforce all violations of a law, and many government agencies get “captured” by the industries they are supposed to regulate. So Colorado should amend its Act to empower ordinary people to sue the companies that violate their legal protections from high-risk AI systems. This is often called a “private right of action,” and it is the best way to ensure robust enforcement. For example, the people of Illinois and Texas on paper have similar rights to biometric privacy, but in practice the people of Illinois have far more enjoyment of this right because they can sue violators.

Civil rights enforcement. One of the biggest problems with high-risk AI systems is that they recurringly have an unfair disparate impact against vulnerable groups, and so one of the biggest solutions will be vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws. Unfortunately, the Colorado AI Act contains a confusing “rebuttable presumption” – that is, an evidentiary thumb on the scale – that may impede such enforcement. Specifically, if a deployer or developer complies with the Act, then they get a rebuttable presumption that they complied with the Act’s requirement of “reasonable care” to protect people from algorithmic discrimination. In practice, this may make it harder for a person subjected to a high-risk AI system to prove their discrimination claim. Other civil rights laws generally do not have this kind of provision. Colorado should amend its Act to remove it.

Next Steps

Colorado is off to an important start. Now it should strengthen its AI Act, and should not weaken or further delay it. Other states must enact their own laws. All manner of automated decision-making systems are unfairly depriving people of jobs, health care, and more.

EFF has long been fighting against such practices. We believe technology should improve everyone’s lives, not subject them to abuse and discrimination. We hope you will join us.

Privacy laws are only as strong as their enforcement. In California, the state’s privacy agency recently issued its largest-ever fine for violation of the state’s privacy law—and all because of a consumer complaint.

The state’s  privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA, requires many companies to respect California customers' and job applicants' rights to know, delete and correct information that businesses collect about them, and to opt-out of some types of sharing and use. It also requires companies to give notice of these rights, along with other information, to customers, job applicants, and others. (Bonus tip: Have a complaint about something else, such as a data breach? Go to the CA Attorney General.)

If you’re a Californian and think a business isn’t obeying the law, then the best thing to do is tell someone who can do something about it. How? It’s easy. In fewer than a dozen questions, you can share enough information to get the agency started.

Start With the Basics

First, head to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s website at cppa.ca.gov. On the front page, you’ll see an option to “File a Complaint.” Click on that option.

That button takes you to the online complaint form. You can also print out the agency’s paper complaint form here.

The complaint form starts, fittingly, by explaining the agency’s own privacy practices. Then it gets down to business by asking for information about your situation.

The first question offers a list of rights people have under the CCPA, such as a right to delete or a right to correct sensitive personal information. So, for example, if you’ve asked ABC Company to delete your information, but they have refused, you’d select “Right to Delete.” This helps the agency categorize your complaint and tie it directly to the requirements in the law.  The form then asks for the names of businesses, contractors, or people you want to report.

It also asks whether you’re a California resident. If you’re unsure, because you split residency or for other reasons, there is an “Unsure” option.

Adding the Details

From there, the form asks for more detailed information about what’s happened. There is a character limit on this question, so you’ll have to choose your words carefully. If you can, check out the agency’s FAQ on how to write a successful complaint before you submit the form. This will help you be specific and tell the agency what they need to hear to act on your complaint.

In the next question, include information about any proof you have supporting your complaint. So, for example, you could tell the agency you have your email asking ABC Company to delete your information, and also a screenshot of proof that they haven’t erased it. Or, say “I spoke to a person on the phone on this date.” This should just be a list of information you have, rather than a place to paste in emails or attach images.

The form will also ask if you’ve directly contacted the business about your complaint. You can just answer yes or no to this question. If it’s an issue such as a company not posting a privacy notice, or something similar, it may not have made sense to contact them directly. But if you made a deletion request, you probably have contacted them about it.

Anonymous or Not?

Finally, the complaint form will ask you to make either an “unsworn complaint” or a “sworn complaint.” This choice affects how you’ll be involved in the process going forward. You can file an anonymous unsworn complaint. But that will mean the agency can’t contact you about the issue in the future, since they don’t have any of your information.

For a sworn complaint, you have to provide some contact information and confirm that what you’re saying is true and that you’d swear to it in court.

Just because you submit contact information, that doesn’t mean the agency will contact you. Investigations are usually confidential, until there’s something like a settlement to announce. But we’ve seen that consumer complaints can be the spark for an investigation. It’s important for all of us to speak up, because it really does make a difference.

The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued a record fine earlier this month to Tractor Supply, the country’s self-proclaimed largest “rural lifestyle” retailer, for apparently ducking its responsibilities under the California Consumer Privacy Act. Under that law, companies are required to respect California customers’ and job applicants’ rights to know, delete, and correct information that businesses collect about them, and to opt-out of some types of sharing and use. The law also requires companies to give notice of these rights, along with other information, to customers, job applicants, and others. The CPPA said that Tractor Supply failed several of these requirements. This is the first time the agency has enforced this data privacy law to protect job applicants. Perhaps best of all, the company's practices came to light all thanks to a consumer complaint filed with the agency.

Your complaints matter—so keep speaking up. 

Tractor Supply, which has 2,500 stores in 49 states, will pay for their actions to the tune of $1,350,000—the largest fine the agency has issued to date. Specifically, the agency said, Tractor Supply violated the law by:

• Failing to maintain a privacy policy that notified consumers of their rights;
• Failing to notify California job applicants of their privacy rights and how to exercise them;
• Failing to provide consumers with an effective mechanism to opt-out of the selling and sharing of their personal information, including through opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control; and
• Disclosing personal information to other companies without entering into contracts that contain privacy protections.

In addition to the fine, the company also must take an inventory of its digital properties and tracking technologies and will have to certify its compliance with the California privacy law for the next four years.

It may surprise people to see that the agency’s most aggressive fine isn’t levied on a large technology company, data broker, or advertising company. But this case merely highlights what anyone who uses the internet knows: practically every company is tracking your online behavior. 

The agency may be trying to make exactly this point by zeroing in on Tractor Supply. In its press release on the fine, the agency's top enforcer was clear that they'll be casting a wide net. 

 “We will continue to look broadly across industries to identify violations of California’s privacy law,” said Michael Macko, the Agency’s head of enforcement. “We made it an enforcement priority to investigate whether businesses are properly implementing privacy rights, and this action underscores our ongoing commitment to doing that for consumers and job applicants alike.”

It is encouraging to see the agency stand up for Californians’ rights. For years, we have said privacy laws are only as strong as their enforcement. Ideally we'd like to see privacy laws—including California’s—include a private right to action to let anyone sue for privacy violations, in addition to enforcement actions like this one from regulators. Since individuals can't stand up for the majority of their own privacy rights in California, however, it's even more important that regulators such as the CPPA are active, strategic, and bold. 

It also highlights why it's important for people like you to submit complaints to regulators. As the agency itself said, “The CPPA opened an investigation into Tractor Supply’s privacy practices after receiving a complaint from a consumer in Placerville, California.” Your complaints matter—so keep speaking up. 

Trying to take control of your online privacy can feel like a full-time job. But if you break it up into small tasks and take on one project at a time it makes the process of protecting your privacy much easier. This month we’re going to do just that. For the month of October, we’ll update this post with new tips every weekday that show various ways you can opt yourself out of the ways tech giants surveil you.

Online privacy isn’t dead. But the tech giants make it a pain in the butt to achieve. With these incremental tweaks to the services we use, we can throw sand in the gears of the surveillance machine and opt out of the ways tech companies attempt to optimize us into advertisement and content viewing machines. We’re also pushing companies to make more privacy-protective defaults the norm, but until that happens, the onus is on all of us to dig into the settings.

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All month long we’ll share tips, including some with the help from our friends at Consumer Reports’ Security Planner tool. Use the Table of Contents here to jump straight to any tip.

Table of Contents

• Tip 1: Establish Good Digital Hygiene
• Tip 2: Learn What a Data Broker Knows About You
• Tip 3: Disable Ad Tracking on iPhone and Android
• Tip 4: Declutter Your Apps
• Tip 5: Disable Behavioral Ads on Amazon
• Tip 6: Install Privacy Badger to Block Online Trackers
• Tip 7: Review Location Tracking Settings
• Tip 8: Limit the Data Your Gaming Console Collects About You
• Tip 9: Hide Your Start and End Points on Strava
• Tip 10: Find and Delete an Account You No Longer Use
• Tip 11: Search for Yourself
• Tip 12: Tell "People Search" Sites to Delete Your Information
• Tip 13: Remove Your Personal Addresses from Search Engines
• Tip 14: Check Out Signal
  
• Tip 15: Switch to a Privacy-Protective Browser
• Tip 16: Give Yourself Another Online Identity
• Tip 17: Check Out Virtual Card Services
• Tip 18: Minimize Risk While Using Digital Payment Apps
• Tip 19: Turn Off Ad Personalization to Limit How the Tech Giants Monetize Your Data
• Tip 20: Tighten Account Privacy Settings
• Tip 21: Protect Your Data When Dating Online
• Tip 22: Turn Off Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) On Your TV

Tip 1: Establish Good Digital Hygiene

Before we can get into the privacy weeds, we need to first establish strong basics. Namely, two security fundamentals: using strong passwords (a password manager helps simplify this) and two-factor authentication for your online accounts. Together, they can significantly improve your online privacy by making it much harder for your data to fall into the hands of a stranger.

Using unique passwords for every web login means that if your account information ends up in a data breach, it won’t give bad actors an easy way to unlock your other accounts. Since it’s impossible for all of us to remember a unique password for every login we have, most people will want to use a password manager, which generates and stores those passwords for you.

Two-factor authentication is the second lock on those same accounts. In order to login to, say, Facebook for the first time on a particular computer, you’ll need to provide a password and a “second factor,” usually an always-changing numeric code generated in an app or sent to you on another device. This makes it much harder for someone else to get into your account because it’s less likely they’ll have both a password and the temporary code.

This can be a little overwhelming to get started if you’re new to online privacy! Aside from our guides on Surveillance Self-Defense, we recommend taking a look at Consumer Reports’ Security Planner for ways to help you get started setting up your first password manager and turning on two-factor authentication.

Tip 2: Learn What a Data Broker Knows About You

Hundreds of data brokers you’ve never heard of are harvesting and selling your personal information. This can include your address, online activity, financial transactions, relationships, and even your location history. Once sold, your data can be abused by scammers, advertisers, predatory companies, and even law enforcement agencies.

Data brokers build detailed profiles of our lives but try to keep their own practices hidden. Fortunately, several state privacy laws give you the right to see what information these companies have collected about you. You can exercise this right by submitting a data access request to a data broker. Even if you live in a state without privacy legislation, some data brokers will still respond to your request.

There are hundreds of known data brokers, but here are a few major ones to start with:

• Acxiom
• Epsilon
• The Trade Desk

Data brokers have been caught ignoring privacy laws, so there’s a chance you won’t get a response. If you do, you’ll learn what information the data broker has collected about you and the categories of third parties they’ve sold it to. If the results motivate you to take more privacy action, encourage your friends and family to do the same. Don’t let data brokers keep their spying a secret.

You can also ask data brokers to delete your data, with or without an access request. We’ll get to that later this month and explain how to do this with people-search sites, a category of data brokers.

Tip 3: Disable Ad Tracking on iPhone and Android

Picture this: you’re doomscrolling and spot a t-shirt you love. Later, you mention it to a friend and suddenly see an ad for that exact shirt in another app. The natural question pops into your head: “Is my phone listening to me?” Take a sigh of relief because, no, your phone is not listening to you. But advertisers are using shady tactics to profile your interests. Here’s an easy way to fight back: disable the ad identifier on your phone to make it harder for advertisers and data brokers to track you.

Disable Ad Tracking on iOS and iPadOS:

• Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking, and turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
• Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising, and disable “Personalized Ads” to also stop some of Apple’s internal tracking for apps like the App Store. 
• If you use Safari, go to Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced and disable “Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement.”

Disable Ad Tracking on Android:

• Open Settings > Security & privacy > Privacy controls > Ads, and tap “Delete advertising ID.”
• While you’re at it, run through Google’s “Privacy Checkup” to review what info other Google services—like YouTube or your location—may be sharing with advertisers and data brokers.

These quick settings changes can help keep bad actors from spying on you. For a deeper dive on securing your iPhone or Android device, be sure to check out our full Surveillance Self-Defense guides.

Tip 4: Declutter Your Apps

Decluttering is all the rage for optimizers and organizers alike, but did you know a cleansing sweep through your apps can also help your privacy? Apps collect a lot of data, often in the background when you are not using them. This can be a prime way companies harvest your information, and then repackage and sell it to other companies you've never heard of. Having a lot of apps increases the peepholes that companies can gain into your personal life. 

Do you need three airline apps when you're not even traveling? Or the app for that hotel chain you stayed in once? It's best to delete that app and cut off their access to your information. In an ideal world, app makers would not process any of your data unless strictly necessary to give you what you asked for. Until then, to do an app audit:

• Look through the apps you have and identify ones you rarely open or barely use. 
• Long-press on apps that you don't use anymore and delete or uninstall them when a menu pops up. 
• Even on apps you keep, take a swing through the location, microphone, or camera permissions for each of them. For iOS devices you can follow these instructions to find that menu. For Android, check out this instructions page.

If you delete an app and later find you need it, you can always redownload it. Try giving some apps the boot today to gain some memory space and some peace of mind.

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Tip 5: Disable Behavioral Ads on Amazon

Happy Amazon Prime Day! Let’s celebrate by taking back a piece of our privacy.

Amazon collects an astounding amount of information about your shopping habits. While the only way to truly free yourself from the company’s all-seeing eye is to never shop there, there is something you can do to disrupt some of that data use: tell Amazon to stop using your data to market more things to you (these settings are for US users and may not be available in all countries).

• Log into your Amazon account, then click “Account & Lists” under your name. 
• Scroll down to the “Communication and Content” section and click “Advertising preferences” (or just click this link to head directly there).
• Click the option next to “Do not show me interest-based ads provided by Amazon.”
• You may want to also delete the data Amazon already collected, so click the “Delete ad data” button.

This setting will turn off the personalized ads based on what Amazon infers about you, though you will likely still see recommendations based on your past purchases at Amazon.

Of course, Amazon sells a lot of other products. If you own an Alexa, now’s a good time to review the few remaining privacy options available to you after the company took away the ability to disable voice recordings. Kindle users might want to turn off some of the data usage tracking. And if you own a Ring camera, consider enabling end-to-end encryption to ensure you’re in control of the recording, not the company. 

Tip 6: Install Privacy Badger to Block Online Trackers

Every time you browse the web, you’re being tracked. Most websites contain invisible tracking code that lets companies collect and profit from your data. That data can end up in the hands of advertisers, data brokers, scammers, and even government agencies. Privacy Badger, EFF’s free browser extension, can help you fight back.

Privacy Badger automatically blocks hidden trackers to stop companies from spying on you online. It also tells websites not to share or sell your data by sending the “Global Privacy Control” signal, which is legally binding under some state privacy laws. Privacy Badger has evolved over the past decade to fight various methods of online tracking. Whether you want to protect your sensitive information from data brokers or just don’t want Big Tech monetizing your data, Privacy Badger has your back.

Visit privacybadger.org to install Privacy Badger.

It’s available on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera for desktop devices and Firefox and Edge for Android devices. Once installed, all of Privacy Badger’s features work automatically. There’s no setup required! If blocking harmful trackers ends up breaking something on a website, you can easily turn off Privacy Badger for that site while maintaining privacy protections everywhere else.

When you install Privacy Badger, you’re not just protecting yourself—you’re joining EFF and millions of other users in the fight against online surveillance.

Tip 7: Review Location Tracking Settings

Data brokers don’t just collect information on your purchases and browsing history. Mobile apps that have the location permission turned on will deliver your coordinates to third parties in exchange for insights or monetary kickbacks. Even when they don’t deliver that data directly to data brokers, if the app serves ad space, your location will be delivered in real-time bid requests not only to those wishing to place an ad, but to all participants in the ad auction—even if they lose the bid. Location data brokers take part in these auctions just to harvest location data en masse, without any intention of buying ad space.

Luckily, you can change a few settings to protect yourself against this hoovering of your whereabouts. You can use iOS or Android tools to audit an app’s permissions, providing clarity on who is providing what info to whom. You can then go to the apps that don’t need your location data and disable their access to that data (you can always change your mind later if it turns out location access was useful). You can also disable real-time location tracking by putting your phone into airplane mode, while still being able to navigate using offline maps. And by disabling mobile advertising identifiers (see tip three), you break the chain that links your location from one moment to the next.

Finally, for particularly sensitive situations you may want to bring an entirely separate, single-purpose device which you’ve kept clean of unneeded apps and locked down settings on. Similar in concept to a burner phone, even if this single-purpose device does manage to gather data on you, it can only tell a partial story about you—all the other data linking you to your normal activities will be kept separate.

For details on how you can follow these tips and more on your own devices, check out our more extensive post on the topic.

Tip 8: Limit the Data Your Gaming Console Collects About You

Oh, the beauty of gaming consoles—just plug in and play! Well... after you speed-run through a bunch of terms and conditions, internet setup, and privacy settings. If you rushed through those startup screens, don’t worry! It’s not too late to limit the data your console is collecting about you. Because yes, modern consoles do collect a lot about your gaming habits.

Start with the basics: make sure you have two-factor authentication turned on for your accounts. PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo all have guides on their sites. Between payment details and other personal info tied to these accounts, 2FA is an easy first line of defense for your data.

Then, it’s time to check the privacy controls on your console:

• PlayStation 5: Go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Privacy to adjust what you share with both strangers and friends. To limit the data your PS5 collects about you, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Privacy, where you can adjust settings under Data You Provide and Personalization.

• Xbox Series X|S: Press the Xbox button > Profile & System > Settings > Account > Privacy & online safety > Xbox Privacy to fine-tune your sharing. To manage data collection, head to Profile & System > Settings > Account > Privacy & online safety > Data collection.
• Nintendo Switch: The Switch doesn’t share as much data by default, but you still have options. To control who sees your play activity, go to System Settings > Users > [your profile] > Play Activity Settings. To opt out of sharing eShop data, open the eShop, select your profile (top right), then go to Google Analytics Preferences > Do Not Share.

Plug and play, right? Almost. These quick checks can help keep your gaming sessions fun—and more private.

Tip 9: Hide Your Start and End Points on Strava

Sharing your personal fitness goals, whether it be extended distances, accurate calorie counts, or GPS paths—sounds like a fun, competitive feature offered by today's digital fitness trackers. If you enjoy tracking those activities, you've probably heard of Strava. While it's excellent for motivation and connecting with fellow athletes, Strava's default settings can reveal sensitive information about where you live, work, or exercise, creating serious security and privacy risks. Fortunately, Strava gives you control over how much of your activity map is visible to others, allowing you to stay active in your community while protecting your personal safety.

We've covered how Strava data exposed classified military bases in 2018 when service members used fitness trackers. If fitness data can compromise national security, what's it revealing about you?

Here's how to hide your start and end points:

• On the website: Hover over your profile picture > Settings > Privacy Controls > Map Visibility.
• On mobile: Open Settings > Privacy Controls > Map Visibility.
• You can then choose from three options: hide portions near a specific address, hide start/end of all activities, or hide entire maps

You can also adjust individual activities:

• Open the activity you want to edit.
• Select the three-dot menu icon.
• Choose "Edit Map Visibility."
• Use sliders to customize what's hidden or enable "Hide the Entire Map."

Great job taking control of your location privacy! Remember that these settings only apply to Strava, so if you share activities to other platforms, you'll need to adjust those privacy settings separately. While you're at it, consider reviewing your overall activity visibility settings to ensure you're only sharing what you want with the people you choose.

Tip 10: Find and Delete An Account You No Longer Use

Millions of online accounts are compromised each year. The more accounts you have, the more at risk you are of having your personal data illegally accessed and published online. Even if you don’t suffer a data breach, there’s also the possibility that someone could find one of your abandoned social media accounts containing information you shared publicly on purpose in the past, but don’t necessarily want floating around anymore. And companies may still be profiting off details of your personal life, even though you’re not getting any benefit from their service.

So, now’s a good time to find an old account to delete. There may be one you can already think of, but if you’re stuck, you can look through your password manager, look through logins saved on your web browser, or search your email inbox for phrases like “new account,” “password,” “welcome to,” or “confirm your email.” Or, enter your email address on the website HaveIBeenPwned to get a list of sites where your personal information has been compromised to see if any of them are accounts you no longer use.

Once you’ve decided on an account, you’ll need to find the steps to delete it. Simply deleting an app off of your phone or computer does not delete your account. Often you can log in and look in the account settings, or find instructions in the help menu, the FAQ page, or the pop-up customer service chat. If that fails, use a search engine to see if anybody else has written up the steps to deleting your specific type of account.

For more information, check out the Delete Unused Accounts tip on Security Planner.

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Tip 11: Search for Yourself

Today's tip may sound a little existential, but we're not suggesting a deep spiritual journey. Just a trip to your nearest search engine. Pop your name into search engines such as Google or DuckDuckGo, or even AI tools such as ChatGPT, to see what you find. This is one of the simplest things you can do to raise your own awareness of your digital reputation. It can be the first thing prospective employers (or future first dates) do when trying to figure out who you are. From a privacy perspective, doing it yourself can also shed light on how your information is presented to the general public. If there's a defunct social media account you'd rather keep hidden, but it's on the first page of your search results, that might be a good signal for you to finally delete that account. If you shared your cellphone number with an organization you volunteer for and it's on their home page, you can ask them to take it down.

Knowledge is power. It's important to know what search results are out there about you, so you understand what people see when they look for you. Once you have this overview, you can make better choices about your online privacy. 

Tip 12: Tell “People Search” Sites to Delete Your Information

When you search online for someone’s name, you’ll likely see results from people-search sites selling their home address, phone number, relatives’ names, and more. People-search sites are a type of data broker with an especially dangerous impact. They can expose people to scams, stalking, and identity theft. Submit opt out requests to these sites to reduce the amount of personal information that is easily available about you online.

Check out this list of opt-out links and instructions for more than 50 people search sites, organized by priority. Before submitting a request, check that the site actually has your information. Here are a few high-priority sites to start with: 

• Intelius: Find your information and fill out the opt-out form. 
• Spokeo: Find your information and enter the URL of your profile on the opt-out page.
• BeenVerified: Find your information and opt out of people search and property search. 

Data brokers continuously collect new information, so your data could reappear after being deleted. You’ll have to re-submit opt-outs periodically to keep your information off of people-search sites. Subscription-based services can automate this process and save you time, but a Consumer Reports study found that manual opt-outs are more effective.

Tip 13: Remove Your Personal Addresses from Search Engines 

Your home address may often be found with just a few clicks online. Whether you're concerned about your digital footprint or looking to safeguard your physical privacy, understanding where your address appears and how to remove or obscure it is a crucial step. Here's what you need to know.

Your personal addresses can be available through public records like property purchases, medical licensing information, or data brokers. Opting out from data brokers will do a lot to remove what's available commercially, but sometimes you can't erase the information entirely from things like property sales records.

You can ask some search engines to remove your personal information from search indexes, which is the most efficient way to make information like your personal addresses, phone number, and email address a lot harder to find. Google has a form that makes this request quite easy, and we’d suggest starting there.

Day 14: Check Out Signal

Here's the problem: many of your texts aren't actually private. Phone companies, government agencies, and app developers all too often can all peek at your conversations.

So on Global Encryption Day, our tip is to check out Signal—a messaging app that actually keeps your conversations private.

Signal uses end-to-end encryption, meaning only you and your recipient can read your messages—not even Signal can see them. Security experts love Signal because it's run by a privacy-focused nonprofit, funded by donations instead of data collection, and its code is publicly auditable. 

Beyond privacy, Signal offers free messaging and calls over Wi-Fi, helping you avoid SMS charges and international calling fees. The only catch? Your contacts need Signal too, so start recruiting your friends and family!

How to get started: Download Signal from your app store, verify your phone number, set a secure PIN, and start messaging your contacts who join you. Consider also setting up a username so people can reach you without sharing your phone number. For more detailed instructions, check out our guide.

Global Encryption Day is the perfect timing to protect your communications. Take your time to explore the app, and check out other privacy protecting features like disappearing messages, session verification, and lock screen notification privacy.

Tip 15: Switch to a Privacy-Protective Browser

Your browser stores tons of personal information: browsing history, tracking cookies, and data that companies use to build detailed profiles for targeted advertising. The browser you choose makes a huge difference in how much of this tracking you can prevent.

Most people use Chrome or Safari, which are automatically installed on Google and Apple products, but these browsers have significant privacy drawbacks. For example: Chrome's Incognito mode only hides history on your device—it doesn't stop tracking. Safari has been caught storing deleted browser history and collecting data even in private browsing mode.

Firefox is one alternative that puts privacy first. Unlike Chrome, Firefox automatically blocks trackers and ads in Private Browsing mode and prevents websites from sharing your data between sites. It also warns you when websites try to extract your personal information. But Firefox isn't your only option—other privacy-focused browsers like DuckDuckGo, Brave, and Tor also offer strong protections with different features. The key is switching away from browsers that prioritize data collection over your privacy.

Switching is easy: download your chosen browser from the links above and install it. Most browsers let you import bookmarks and passwords during setup.

You now have a new browser! Take some time to explore your new browser's privacy settings to maximize your protection.

Tip 16: Give Yourself Another Online Identity

We all take on different identities at times. Just as it's important to set boundaries in your daily life, the same can be true for your digital identity. For many reasons, people may want to keep aspects of their lives separate—and giving people control over how their information is used is one of the fundamental reasons we fight for privacy. Consider chopping up pieces of your life over separate email accounts, phone numbers, or social media accounts. 

This can help you manage your life and keep a full picture of your private information out of the hands of nosy data-mining companies. Maybe you volunteer for an organization in your spare time that you'd rather keep private, want to keep emails from your kids' school separate from a mountain of spam, or simply would rather keep your professional and private social media accounts separate. 

Whatever the reason, consider whether there's a piece of your life that could benefit from its own identity. When you set up these boundaries, you can also protect your privacy.

Tip 17: Check Out Virtual Card Services

Ever encounter an online vendor selling something that’s just what you need—if you could only be sure they aren’t skimming your credit card number? Or maybe you trust the vendor, but aren’t sure the web site (seemingly written in some arcane e-commerce platform from 1998) won’t be hacked within the hour after your purchase? Buying those bits and bobs shouldn’t cost you your peace of mind on top of the dollar amount. For these types of purchases, we recommend checking out a virtual card service.

These services will generate a seemingly random credit card for your use which is locked down in a particular way which you can specify. This may mean a card locked to a single vendor, where no one else can make charges on it. It could only validate charges for a specific category of purchase, for example clothing. You can not only set limits on vendors, but set spending limits a card can’t exceed, or that it should just be a one-time use card and then close itself. You can even pause a card if you are sure you won’t be using it for some time, and then unpause it later. The configuration is up to you.

There are a number of virtual card services available, like Privacy.com or IronVest, just to name a few. Just like any vendor, though, these services need some way to charge you. So for any virtual card service, pop them into your favored search engine to verify they’re legit, and aren’t going to burden you with additional fees. Some options may also only be available in specific countries or regions, due to financial regulation laws.

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Tip 18: Minimize Risk While Using Digital Payment Apps

Digital payment apps like Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle generally offer fewer fraud protections than credit cards offered by traditional financial institutions. It’s safer to stick to credit cards when making online purchases. That said, there are ways to minimize your risk.

Turn on transaction alerts:

• On Cash App, tap on your picture or initials on the right side of the app. Tap Notifications, and then Transactions. From there, you can toggle the settings to receive a push notification, a text, and/or an email with receipts or to track activity on the app.
• On PayPal, tap on the top right icon to access your account. Tap Notification Preferences, click on “Open Settings” and toggle to “Allow Notifications” if you’d like to see those on your phone.
• On Venmo, tap on your picture or initials to go to the Me tab. Then, tap the Settings gear in the top right of the app, and tap Notifications. From there, you can adjust your text and email notifications, and even turn on push notifications. 

Report suspected fraud quickly

If you receive a notification for a purchase you didn’t make, even if it’s a small amount, make sure to immediately report it. Scammers sometimes test the waters with small amounts to see whether or not their targets are paying attention. Additionally, you may be on the hook for part of the payment if you don’t act fast. PayPal and Venmo say they cover lost funds if they’re reported within 60 days, but Cash App has more complicated restrictions, which can include fees of up to $500 if you lose your device or password and don’t report it within 48 hours.

And don’t forget to turn on multifactor authentication for each app. For more information, check out these tips from Consumer Reports.

Tip 19: Turn Off Ad Personalization to Limit How the Tech Giants Monetize Your Data

Tech companies make billions by harvesting your personal data and using it to sell hyper-targeted ads. This business model drives them to track us far beyond their own platforms, gathering data about our online and offline activity. Surveillance-based advertising isn’t just creepy—it’s harmful. The systems that power hyper-targeted ads can also funnel your personal information to data brokers, advertisers, scammers, and law enforcement agencies. 

To limit how companies monetize your data through surveillance-based advertising, turn off ad personalization on your accounts. This setting looks different depending on the platform, but here are some key places to start:

• Meta (Facebook & Instagram): Follow this guide to find the setting for disabling ad targeting based on data Meta collects about you from other websites and apps.
• Google: Visit https://myadcenter.google.com/home and switch the “Personalized ads” option from “On” to “Off.”
• X (formerly known as Twitter): Visit https://x.com/settings/privacy_and_safety and turn off all settings under “Data sharing and personalization”

Banning online behavioral ads would be a better solution, but turning off ad personalization is a quick and easy step to limit how tech companies profit from your data. And don’t forget to change this same setting on Amazon, too.

Tip 20: Tighten Account Privacy Settings

Just because you want to share information with select friends and family on social media doesn’t necessarily mean you want to broadcast everything to the entire world. Whether you want to make sure you’re not sharing your real-time location with someone you’d rather not bump into or only want your close friends to know about your favorite pop star, you can typically restrict how companies display your status updates and other information.

In addition to whether data is displayed publicly or just to a select group of contacts, you may have some control over how data is collected, used, and shared with advertisers, or how long it is stored for.

To get started, choose an account and review the privacy settings, making changes as needed. Here are links to a few of the major companies to get you started:

• Apple
• Discord
• Facebook
• Google
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Microsoft
• Snapchat
• TikTok
• Twitch
• Venmo
• WhatsApp
• X
• YouTube

Unfortunately, you may need to tweak your privacy settings multiple times to get them the way you want, as companies often introduce new features that are less private by default. And while companies sometimes offer choices on how data is collected, you can’t control most of the data collection that takes place. For more information, see Security Planner.

Tip 21: Protect Your Data When Dating Online

Dating apps like Grindr and Tinder collect vast amounts of intimate details—everything from sexual preferences, location history, and behavioral patterns—all from people that are just looking for love and connection. This data falling into the wrong hands can come with unacceptable consequences, especially for members of the LGBTQ+ community and other vulnerable users that pertinently need privacy protections.

To ensuring that finding love does not involve such a privacy impinging tradeoff, follow these tips to protecting yourself when online dating:

1. Review your login information and make sure to use a strong, unique password for your accounts; and enable two-factor authentication when offered. 
2. Disable behavioral ads so personal details about you cannot be used to create a comprehensive portrait of your life—including your sexual orientation.
3. Review your access to your location and camera roll, and possibly change these in line with what information you would like to keep private. 
4. Consider what photos you choose, upload, and share; and assume that everything can and will be made public.
5. Disable the integration of third-party apps like Spotify if you want more privacy. 
6. Be mindful of what you share with others when you first chat, such as not disclosing financial details, and trust your gut if something feels off. 

There isn't one singular way to use dating apps, but taking these small steps can have a big impact in staying safe when dating online.

Tip 22: Turn Off Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) On Your TV

You might think TVs are just meant to be watched, but it turns out TV manufacturers do their fair share of watching what you watch, too. This is done through technology called “automatic content recognition” (ACR), which snoops on and identifies what you’re watching by snapping screenshots and comparing them to a big database. How many screenshots? The Markup found some TVs captured up to 7,200 images per hour. The main reason? Ad targeting, of course. 

Any TV that’s connected to the internet likely does this alongside now-standard snooping practices, like tracking what apps you open and where you’re located. ACR is particularly nefarious, though, as it can identify not just streaming services, but also offline content, like video games, over-the-air broadcasts, and physical media. What we watch can and should be private, but that’s especially true when we’re using media that’s otherwise not connected to the internet, like Blu-Rays or DVDs.

Opting out of ACR can be a bit of a chore, but it is possible on most smart TVs. Consumer Reports has guides for most of the major TV manufacturers. 

And that’s it for Opt Out October. Hopefully you’ve come across a tip or two that you didn’t know about, and found ways to protect your privacy, and disrupt the astounding amount of data collection tech companies do.

California’s Governor should sign S.B. 7, a common-sense bill to end some of the harshest consequences of automated abuse at work. EFF is proud to join dozens of labor, digital rights, and other advocates in support of the “No Robo Bosses Act.”

Algorithmic decision-making is a growing threat to workers. Bosses are using AI to assess the body language and voice tone of job candidates. They’re using algorithms to predict when employees are organizing a union or planning to quit. They’re automating choices about who gets fired. And these employment algorithms often discriminate based on gender, race, and other protected statuses. Fortunately, many advocates are resisting.

What the Bill Does

S.B. 7 is a strong step in the right direction. It addresses “automated decision systems” (ADS) across the full landscape of employment. It applies to bosses in the private and government sectors, and it protects workers who are employees and contractors. It addresses all manner of employment decisions that involve automated decisionmaking, including hiring, wages, hours, duties, promotion, discipline, and termination. It covers bosses using ADS to assist or replace a person making a decision about another person.

Algorithmic decision-making is a growing threat to workers.

The bill requires employers to be transparent when they rely on ADS. Before using it to make a decision about a job applicant or current worker, a boss must notify them about the use of ADS. The notice must be in a stand-alone, plain language communication. The notice to a current worker must disclose the types of decisions subject to ADS, and a boss cannot use an ADS for an undisclosed purpose. Further, the notice to a current worker must disclose information about how the ADS works, including what information goes in and how it arrives at its decision (such as whether some factors are weighed more heavily than others).

The bill provides some due process to current workers who face discipline or termination based on the ADS. A boss cannot fire or punish a worker based solely on ADS. Before a boss does so based primarily on ADS, they must ensure a person reviews both the ADS output and other relevant information. A boss must also notify the affected worker of such use of ADS. A boss cannot use customer ratings as the only or primary input for such decisions. And every worker can obtain a copy of the most recent year of their own data that their boss might use as ADS input to punish or fire them.

Other provisions of the bill will further protect workers. A boss must maintain an updated list of all ADS it currently uses. A boss cannot use ADS to violate the law, to infer whether a worker is a member of a protected class, or to target a worker for exercising their labor and other rights. Further, a boss cannot retaliate against a worker who exercises their rights under this new law. Local laws are not preempted, so our cities and counties are free to enact additional protections.

Next Steps

The “No Robo Bosses Act” is a great start. And much more is needed, because many kinds of powerful institutions are using automated decision-making against us. Landlords use it to decide who gets a home. Insurance companies use it to decide who gets health care. ICE uses it to decide who must submit to location tracking by electronic monitoring.

EFF has long been fighting such practices. We believe technology should improve everyone’s lives, not subject them to abuse and discrimination. We hope you will join us.

California has one of the nation’s most comprehensive consumer data privacy laws. But it’s not always easy for people to exercise those privacy rights. That’s why we supported Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal’s A.B. 566 throughout the legislative session and are now asking California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign it into law. 

The easier it is to exercise your rights, the more power you have.  

A.B. 566 does a very simple thing. It directs browsers—such as Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s Edge or Mozilla’s Firefox—to give all their users the option to tell companies they don't want companies to  to sell or share personal information  that’s collected about them on the internet. In other words: it makes it easy for Californians to tell companies what they want to happen with their own information.

By making it easy to use tools that allow you to send these sorts of signals to companies’ websites, A.B. 566 makes the California Consumer Privacy Act more user-friendly. And the easier it is to exercise your rights, the more power you have.  

This is a necessary step, because even though the CCPA gives all people in California the right to tell companies not to sell or share their personal information, companies have not made it easy to exercise this right. Right now, someone who wants to make these requests has to go through the processes set up by each company that may collect their information individually. Companies have also often made it pretty hard to make, or even find out how to make, these requests. Giving people the option for an easier way to communicate how they want companies to treat their personal information helps rebalance the often-lopsided relationship between the two.

Industry groups who want to keep the scales tipped firmly in the favor of corporations have lobbied heavily against A.B. 566. But we urge Gov. Newsom not to listen to those who want to it to remain difficult for people to exercise their CCPA rights. EFF’s technologists, lawyers, and advocates think A.B. 566 empowers consumers without imposing regulations that would limit innovation. We think Californians should have easy tools to tell companies how to deal with their information, and urge Gov. Newsom to sign this bill. 

Of the many principles EFF fights for in consumer data privacy legislation, one of the most basic is a right to access the data companies have about you. It’s only fair. So many companies collect information about us without our knowledge or consent. We at least should have a way to find out what they purport to know about our lives.

Yet a recent paper from researchers at the University of Californian-Irvine found that, of 543 data brokers in California’s data broker registry at time of publishing, 43 percent failed to even respond to requests to access data.

43 percent of registered data brokers in California failed to even respond to requests to access data, one study shows.

Let’s stop there for a second. That’s more than four in ten companies from an industry that makes its money from collecting and selling our personal information, ignoring one of our most basic rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act: the right to know what information companies have about us.

Such failures violate the law. If this happens to you, you should file a complaint with the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) and the California Attorney General's Office. 

This is particularly galling because it’s not easy to file a request in the first place. As these researchers pointed out, there is no streamlined process for these time-consuming requests. People often won’t have the time or energy to see them through. Yet when someone does make the effort to file a request, some companies still feel just fine ignoring the law and their customers completely.

Four in ten data brokers are leaving requesters on read, in violation of the law and our privacy rights. That’s not a passing grade in anyone’s book.

Without consequences to back up our rights, as this research illustrates, many companies will bank on not getting caught, or factor weak slaps on the wrist into the cost of doing business.

This is why EFF fights for bills that have teeth. For example, we demand that people have the right to sue for privacy violations themselves—what’s known as a private right of action. Companies hate this form of enforcement, because it can cost them real money when they flout the law.

When the CCPA started out as a ballot initiative, it had a private right of action, including to enforce access requests. But when the legislature enacted the CCPA (in exchange for the initiative’s proponents removing it from the ballot), corporate interests killed the private right of action in negotiations.

We encourage the California Privacy Protection Agency and the California Attorney General’s Office, which both have the authority to bring these companies to task under the CCPA, to look into these findings. Moving forward, we all have to continue to fight for better laws, to strengthen existing laws, and call on states to enforce the laws on their books to respect everyone’s privacy. Data brokers must face real consequences for brazenly flouting our privacy rights.