Electronic Frontier Alliance Fought and Taught Locally: 2024 in Review

The EFF-chaired Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) has had a big year! EFA is a loose network of local groups fighting for digital rights in the United States. With an ever-increasing roster of allies across the country, including significant growth on university campuses, EFA has also undergone a bit of a facelift. With the new branding comes more resources to support local organizing and popular education efforts around the country. 

If you’re a member of a local or state group in the United States that believes in digital rights, please learn more at our FAQ page. EFA groups include hackers, advocates, security educators, tech professionals, activists young and old, and beyond. If you think it would make a good fit, please fill out an application here. The Alliance has scores of members, which all did great work this year. This review highlights just a few.

A new look for EFA 

This past July, the organizing team completed the much needed EFA rebrand project with a brand new website. Thanks to the work of EFF’s Engineering and Design team, organizers now have up-to-date merch, pamphlets, and useful organizer toolkits for alliance members with a range of levels of organizing experience. Whether your group wants to lead advocacy letters to groups needing basic press strategies or organizing on college campuses we have resources to help. We also updated our allies directory to better showcase our local members, and make it easier for activists to find groups and get involved. We also put together a bluesky starter kit to make it easy to follow members into the new platform. This is a major milestone in our effort to build useful resources for the network, which we will continue to maintain and expand in the years ahead. 

More local groups heeded the call:

The alliance continued to grow, especially on college campuses, creating opportunities for some fun cross-campus collaborations in the year ahead. This year, nine local groups across eight states joined up: 

• Stop Surveillance City, Seattle, WA: Stop Surveillance City is fighting against mass surveillance, criminalization and incarceration, and further divestment from people-centered policies. They advocate for investment in their communities and want to increase programs that address the root causes of violence. 
• Cyber Security Club @FSU, Tallahassee, FL: The Cyber Security Club is a student group sharing resources to get students started in cybersecurity and competing in digital Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions. 
• UF Student Infosec Team (UFSIT), Gainesville, FL: UFSIT is the cybersecurity club at the University of Florida. They are student-led and passionate about all things cybersecurity, and their goal is to provide a welcoming environment for students to learn more about all areas of information security, including penetration testing, reverse engineering, vulnerability research, digital forensics, and more. 
• NICC, Newark, NJ: NICC is the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s official information & cybersecurity club. As a student-run organization, NICC started as a way to give NJIT students interested in cybersecurity, ethical hacking, and CTFs a group that would help them learn, grow, and hone their skills. 
• DC919, Raleigh, NC: DEF CON Group 919 is a community group in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Caroli