Nevada
Reject Nevada’s Attack on Encrypted Messaging, EFF Tells Court
LAS VEGAS — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of partners urged a court to protect default encrypted messaging and children’s privacy and security in a brief filed today.
The brief by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Nevada, the EFF, Stanford Internet Observatory Research Scholar Riana Pfefferkorn, and six other organizations asks the court to reject a request by Nevada’s attorney general to stop Meta from offering end-to-end encryption by default to Facebook Messenger users under 18 in the state. The brief was also signed by Access Now, Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), Fight for the Future, Internet Society, Mozilla, and Signal Messenger LLC.
Communications are safer when third parties can’t listen in on them. That’s why the EFF and others who care about privacy pushed Meta for years to make end-to-end encryption the default option in Messenger. Meta finally made the change, but Nevada wants to turn back the clock. As the brief notes, end-to-end encryption “means that even if someone intercepts the messages—whether they are a criminal, a domestic abuser, a foreign despot, or law enforcement—they will not be able to decipher or access the message.” The state of Nevada, however, bizarrely argues that young people would be better off without this protection.
“Encryption is the best tool we have for safeguarding our privacy and security online — and privacy and security are especially important for young people,” said EFF Surveillance Litigation Director Andrew Crocker. “Nevada’s argument that children need to be ‘protected’ from securely communicating isn’t just baffling; it’s dangerous.”
As explained in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the EFF and others today, encryption is one of the best ways to reclaim our privacy and security in a digital world full of cyberattacks and security breaches. It is increasingly being deployed across the internet as a way to protect users and data. For children and their families especially, encrypted communication is one of the strongest safeguards they have against malicious misuse of their private messages — a safeguard Nevada seeks to deny them.
“The European Court of Human Rights recently rejected a Russian law that would have imposed similar requirements on services that offer end-to-end message encryption – finding that it violated human rights and EU law to deny people the security and privacy that encryption provides,” said EFF’s Executive Director Cindy Cohn. “Nevada’s attempt should be similarly rejected.”
In its motion to the court, Nevada argues that it is necessary to block end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger because it can impede some criminal investigations involving children. This ignores that law enforcement can and does conduct investigations involving encrypted messages, which can be reported by users and accessed from either the sender or recipient’s devices. It also ignores law enforcement’s use of the tremendous amount of additional information about users that Meta routinely collects.
The brief notes that co-amicus Pfeffercorn recently authored a study that confirmed that Nevada does not, in fact, need to block encryption to do its investigations. The study found that “content-oblivious” investigation methods are “considered more useful than monitoring the contents of users’ communications when it comes to detecting nearly every kind of online abuse.”
“The court should reject Nevada’s motion,” said EFF’s Crocker. “Making children more vulnerable in just to make law enforcement investigators’ jobs slightly easier is an uneceesary and dangerous trade off.”
For the brief: https://www.eff.org/document/nevada-v-meta-amicus-brief
Nevada
Program to help prevent Southern Nevada evictions is expanding
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A program that aims to keep Southern Nevada residents in their homes is growing.
Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, Clark County, and the Las Vegas area Justice Courts say the Eviction Diversion Program (EDP) will expand to new jurisdictions starting Monday, Feb. 2.
The program’s goal is to prevent the eviction of seniors and people with disabilities.
The program began as a pilot in the Las Vegas Justice Court to provide eligible tenants and landlords with resources.
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Because of its success, Nevada lawmakers earlier this year approved additional funding to expand EDP to Henderson and North Las Vegas.
The partnership will evaluate those facing eviction for long-term solutions. Eligible tenants and landlords can receive rental assistance while working with Clark County Social Services, and a lawyer from the Legal Aid Center will represent the tenants.
This program covers seniors 62 and older, and those who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits due to a disability. To qualify, applicants must be facing eviction for non-payment of rent and must file a tenant answer within the notice period.
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New eviction forms are available on the Civil Law Self-Help Center website.
Nevada
Wednesday’s high school scores, top performances
Top performances
Girls basketball
– Sakaara Ashton, Las Vegas: The freshman nailed three 3-pointers while racking up 22 points, five rebounds and four assists in the Wildcats’ 75-54 win over Tech.
– Jaslyn Jefferson, Shadow Ridge: The senior compiled 40 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in the Mustangs’ 86-5 victory over Desert Pines.
– Jasmine Ponce, Cimarron-Memorial: The junior collected 20 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks to lead the Spartans past Doral Academy 60-30.
– Jordynn Riggins, Losee: The freshman scored 22 points to help the Lions cruise to a 75-3 win over Rancho.
– Delyla Ross, Sunrise Mountain: The senior had 23 points as the Miners rolled to a 56-14 victory over Chaparral.
— Morgan White, Del Sol: The senior posted 17 points to lead the Dragons past Green Valley 67-32.
– Caylyn Young, Faith Lutheran: The sophomore scored 17 points as the Crusaders defeated Legacy 62-32.
Flag football
– Carly Martell, Sky Pointe: The sophomore carried 15 times for 117 yards to help the Eagles down Cheyenne 21-0.
– Andrea Mitchell, Centennial: The junior had 10 solo tackles to lead the defense in the Bulldogs’ 6-0 victory over Canyon Springs.
– Patricia Monacelli, Cadence: The junior caught four passes for 66 yards and a touchdown, and nabbed two interceptions on defense to help lift the Cougars over Boulder City 6-0.
– Danielle Morales, Arbor View: The junior had 69 rushing yards for a touchdown and 38 receiving yards for another score in the Aggies’ 38-13 win over Coronado.
– Charlice Weingarten, Bishop Gorman: The sophomore logged three sacks and two more tackles to help the Gaels beat Foothill 38-18.
Scores
Boys basketball
Beaver Dam 47, Adelson School 32
Boulder City 63, Coral Academy 19
Girls basketball
Basic 47, Sloan Canyon 10
Beaver Dam d. Adelson, forfeit
Bishop Gorman 73, Coronado 29
Cimarron-Memorial 60, Doral Academy 30
Clark 55, Spring Valley 37
Coral Academy 47, Boulder City 45
Del Sol 67, Green Valley 32
Democracy Prep 62, Liberty 29
Faith Lutheran 62, Legacy 32
Las Vegas 75, Tech 54
Losee 75, Rancho 3
Mater East 62, Eldorado 13
Moapa Valley 54, Amplus Academy 6
Pahrump Valley 50, Cristo Rey 17
Palo Verde 44, Canyon Springs 43
Shadow Ridge 86, Desert Pines 5
Sierra Vista 60, Desert Oasis 48
Sunrise Mountain 56, Chaparral 14
Virgin Valley d. The Meadows, forfeit
Western 57, Durango 37
Flag football
Arbor 38, Coronado 13
Bishop Gorman 38, Foothill 18
Bonanza 18, Amplus 14
Cadence 6, Boulder City 0
Centennial 6, Canyon Springs 0
Clark 26, Western 6
Desert Oasis 48, Basic 6
Eldorado 30, Desert Pines 19
Legacy 33, Doral Academy 6
Mojave 8, Cimarron-Memorial 0
Sierra Vista 18, Durango 0
Sky Pointe 21, Cheyenne 0
Spring Valley 34, Democracy Prep 0
Virgin Valley 27, Las Vegas 26
Jeff Wollard Review-Journal
Nevada
Nevada’s unemployment rate remains steady at 5.2% in December
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Nevada’s unemployment rate for December remains unchanged at 5.2%, according to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
The figures show no improvement from the previous month.
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In a breakdown of the state’s cities, Las Vegas also reported a 5.2% unemployment rate, while Reno and Carson City both recorded a rate of 4%.
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