Last Update: 04/05/2026 at 2:50 PM EST
Cindy Cohn Defends Online Privacy
Coverage from Tech Policy Press, The Michigan Daily, and others
Articles
7
Latest Article
03/27
Active Days
157
Executive Summary
Cindy Cohn reflects on decades of privacy fights against surveillance, data brokers, and AI-driven monitoring, and the need to rebuild privacy into systems.
- Cohn is retiring after a 30-year career with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Her memoir traces fights from the Crypto Wars to NSA dragnet surveillance and FBI gag orders
- She credits encryption and end-to-end tools like Signal as major privacy wins
- She says surveillance business models and data brokers have expanded government and corporate tracking
- Public outcry helped push back against Flock license plate readers in several communities
- She warns AI can supercharge surveillance by turning large data sets into more powerful monitoring tools
- She frames privacy as a check on power for people facing governments, companies, and institutions
Quick Facts
- What: A memoir and interviews on decades of privacy battles
- Where: San Francisco, Portland, Berkeley, and other tour stops
- Why: To defend privacy, free speech, and limits on surveillance
- Who: Cindy Cohn and digital rights advocates at EFF
- When: March 2024 with events in March 2025
Coverage Timeline: 157 Days
Featured Article
Cindy Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director, discussed her memoir after leaving EFF, covering early advocacy and encryption litigation tied to First Amendment protections in the context of state and corporate tracking.
Additional Articles
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Cindy Cohn discusses encryption driven privacy protections in the United States amid contemporary legal and activist efforts.
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Cindy and two experts discuss encryption and privacy battles on March 10 in San Francisco.
Cindy Cohn discusses encryption and privacy rights on March 13 at Powell's City of Books in Portland.
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Cindy Cohn presents a memoir about three decades of privacy battles, released in March with events in San Francisco and Berkeley and a national tour.
Cindy Cohn leads privacy advocacy and litigation in the United States during the digital age.
Cindy Cohn discusses privacy battles from Bernstein case in the 1990s to NSA surveillance debates in the 2010s at Kepler's Books in California.