Cindy Cohn Is Leaving the EFF, but Not the Fight for Digital Rights
After a quarter Century defending digital rights, Cindy Cohn announced on Tuesday that she is resigning from her position as executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Cohn, who has managed the non -profit organization based in San Francisco since 2015, says that she will leave the role later this year, concluding a chapter that helped define the modern online freedom struggle.
Cohn first took on importance as the main advice in BERNSTEIN c. Department of JusticeThe affair of the 1990s which canceled federal restrictions on the publication encryption code. As a legal director of the EFF and subsequent director general, she guided the group through legal challenges to the surveillance of the government, the reforms of computer crime and efforts to keep companies responsible for data collection. Over the past decade, EFF has expanded its influence, becoming a central force to shape the debate on privacy, security and digital freedom.
In an interview with Wired, Cohn thought about the fundamental encryption victories of the EFF, its unfinished battles against the surveillance of the National Safety Agency (NSA) and the work of the organization protecting independent security researchers. It spoke of the balance of powers changing between societies and governments, pressure for stronger confidentiality laws and the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Although who withdraws from leadership, Cohn tells Wired that she plans to remain active in the fight against mass surveillance and the secret of the government. Describing herself as “more a warrior than a manager”, she says that her intention is to return to the front line plea. She also works on an upcoming book, The defender of privacyBefore next spring, which she hopes to inspire a new generation of digital rights defenders.
This interview has been modified for duration and clarity.
Wired: Tell us about the fights you have won and those who still do not feel finished after 25 years.
Cindy Cohn: The early fight we have made to release the encryption of government regulations always stands out as preparing the ground for a potentially secure internet. We are always working to transform this promise into reality, but we are in a place so different from the one we would have been in if we had lost this fight. Encryption protects anyone who buys something online, whoever uses the signal to be a whistleblower or journalists, or simply ordinary people who want privacy and use WhatsApp or Signal. Even the authorities of the Backend certificate provided by Let’s Encrypt – who ensure that when you think you go to your bank, you are actually going to your bank website – all are made possible due to encryption. These are all things that would have been at risk if we had not won this fight. I think the victory was fundamental, even if the fights are not over.
The fights we have had around the NSA and national security are always work in progress. We did not succeed with our great challenge to spy on the NSA Jewel v. NsaAlthough on the long arc of this case and the legislative fights that accompany it, we managed to go back a lot from what the NSA began to do after September 11.
