Cindy Cohn has been on the front lines, defending your digital rights, for three decades. With the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), she has litigated several seminal legal cases that have directly impacted the lives of all Americans. As she retires from her role as Director of the EFF, she’s written a memoir about her time there and documents several of these legal fights called Privacy’s Defender. Today I’ll ask Cindy about the key parts of these cases, how we interpret our rights in the digital realm, and what we can do to ensure a free and open internet.

Interview Notes

Cindy Cohn: https://www.eff.org/about/staff/cindy-cohn
Privacy’s Defender: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051248/privacys-defender/
Give thanks (donate): https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/give-thanks-donate/
Clipper Chip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip
Secure Drop: https://securedrop.org/
Geofence warrants case: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-supreme-court-shut-down-unconstitutional-geofence-searches
404 Media’s FOIA Forum: https://www.404media.co/foia-forum-archive/

Further Info

My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch

0:00:15: Intro
0:01:13: Lingo
0:03:52: What if you had lost the Bernstein case?
0:09:18: What re-ignited the Crypto Wars?
0:13:54: Can we prevent all crime with surveillance?
0:16:37: How do our rights apply in the digital world?
0:21:29: Should national security trump our rights?
0:26:58: Can’t courts handle secret evidence?
0:29:20: How does loss of privacy create a power imbalance?
0:35:02: How does privacy improve democracy?
0:36:54: How to you translate technogy to law?
0:40:49: Are we losing online anonymity?
0:44:13: How important are whistleblowers?
0:47:08: How can we protect privacy from the next crisis?
0:54:24: How do we avoid burnout and keep fighting?
0:57:47: How do we get a federal privacy law?
1:02:37: What’s next for you and the EFF?
1:06:48: Wrap-up
1:08:37: Donate to rights organizations
1:10:27: Patron podcast preview
1:11:05: Looking ahead

Interview Notes

Further Info

Table of Contents