EFF Calls for a Day of Action on June 21. Please join us.

The Department of Justice is using an obscure procedure to push through a rule change that will greatly increase law enforcement’s ability to hack into computers located around the world. It’s an update to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. If Congress does nothing, this massive change will automatically go into effect on December 1.

EFF, the Tor Project, and dozens of other organizations concerned about the future of our digital security are taking a stand for users everywhere. We’re organizing a campaign and day of action to speak out against the changes to Rule 41.

But we can’t do it alone. If you run a website, we need your help.

We’ve created a unique embeddable banner. It will allow people to email members of the U.S. Congress or sign a petition opposing the changes to Rule 41. Please help us by embedding this code onto your site:

<!--[if !(lt IE 8)]><!--> < script type = " text/javascript " > ( function (){ var e = document . createElement ( ' script ' ); e . type = ' text/javascript ' ; e . async = true ; e . src = ' https://www.eff.org/ngw/widget.min.js ' ; var s = document . getElementsByTagName ( ' script ' )[ 0 ]; s . parentNode . insertBefore (e, s); })(); </ script > <!--<![endif]-->

The code will automatically display the banner on our day of action: Tuesday June 21. After that day, the banner will disappear automatically. See an example of the banner.

If you’d rather host your own banner, you can insert this image into your site and link it to NoGlobalWarrants.org (website will be live on June 21).

Don’t run a website? You can still help.

Even if you don’t run a website where you can embed the banner, you can still help. On or before June 21, you can send an email to your member of Congress. Please post about Rule 41 on social media or a blog, and ask your friends to speak out. Feel free to get creative by hosting events in your home community, taking a photo, and sending it our way.

Let us know what you’re planning (whether embedding a banner or not) by filling out this form.

Why you should care

We’ve written a detailed explanation of the changes to Rule 41, which explains why this update will result in a dramatic increase in government hacking. Here’s an overview of some of the main reasons we are concerned:

Government agents hacking into computers more frequently is a recipe for disaster. Law enforcement will increase their exploitation of security vulnerabilities in common software products, meaning vulnerabilities that could affect millions will be left open instead of patched.

Law enforcement will forum shop, finding government-friendly magistrate judges to sign off on warrants with a loose connection to the judicial district.

Law enforcement will pressure judges to sign off on remote searches of thousands of computers with a single warrant—a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment and a pattern we’re already seeing.

This rule change especially impacts people using privacy protective technologies like Tor or VPNs, which is why we’re asking privacy tools to join us in standing up for users on June 21.

Want to join our day of action? Just let us know what you’re planning, especially if you can embed the banner.