Interview with EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn: "I like to win."

Privacy Guides sat down with EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn to reflect on her over 30 years of service defending privacy and digital civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the importance of community in activist spaces, and the big picture in our fight for privacy. Cindy Cohn's memoir, Privacy's Defender, is now available at a variety of retailers.

Privacy’s Defender

EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn’s Journey Inside the Privacy Battles That Shaped Today’s InternetEFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn has devoted her life to the fight for digital rights. She’s tangled with federal officials to keep our online conversations secure from the government’s prying eyes,…

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Her first major case with the EFF, Bernstein v. United States, established the "right to code" and dismantled the USA's unconstitutional ban on encryption exports, paving the way for people to develop technologies like PGP and other strong encryption tools without having to register as an "arms dealer" and face government restrictions on publishing their ideas.

In her career since she's represented many historic cases: suing AT&T for secretly collaborating with the NSA (Hepting v. AT&T), Sony for installing malware DRM, a vote machine company abusing copyright law to silence criticism, the DVD Copy Control Association attacking freedom of speech, and many other fights against the NSA and for internet freedom.

Cohn has been with the EFF or over 30 years, and succeeded Shari Steele to become EFF's Executive Director in 2015. Our interview discusses her works and legacy, the origins of the EFF, and the still-ongoing fight for privacy and digital liberties 💪