Hackers On Planet Earth

Privacy’s Defender: My 30 Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

Cindy Cohn

In this talk that parallels her recently released book of the same title, Cindy Cohn (former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation) weaves her own personal story with her role as a leading legal voice representing the rights and interests of technology users, innovators, whistleblowers, and researchers during the Crypto Wars of the 1990s, battles over NSA’s dragnet Internet spying revealed in the 2000s, and the fight against FBI gag orders. No promises, but she may be joined on stage by a key client or two.

Friday 1500 Grand Ballroom

Cindy Cohn is a renowned American civil liberties attorney who served as the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) from 2015 to 2026. She is highly regarded as one of the country’s leading legal defenders of digital rights, privacy, and free speech. Before stepping up as executive director, she spent 15 years as the organization ’s legal director and general counsel, leading campaigns against corporate overreach, platform censorship, and FBI gag orders.

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