After 1 / 4 century defending digital rights, Cindy Cohn introduced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as govt director of the Digital Frontier Basis. Cohn, who has led the San Francisco–primarily based nonprofit since 2015, says she is going to depart the position later this 12 months, concluding a chapter that helped outline the fashionable battle over on-line freedom.
Cohn first rose to prominence as lead counsel in Bernstein v. Division of Justice, the Nineties case that overturned federal restrictions on publishing encryption code. As EFF’s authorized director and later govt director, she guided the group via authorized challenges to authorities surveillance, reforms to pc crime legal guidelines, and efforts to carry companies accountable for information assortment. Over the previous decade, EFF has expanded its affect, changing into a central pressure in shaping the talk over privateness, safety, and digital freedom.
In an interview with WIRED, Cohn mirrored on EFF’s foundational encryption victories, its unfinished battles in opposition to Nationwide Safety Company (NSA) surveillance, and the group’s work defending impartial safety researchers. She spoke concerning the shifting steadiness of energy between companies and governments, the push for stronger state-level privateness legal guidelines, and the rising dangers posed by synthetic intelligence.
Although stepping down from management, Cohn tells WIRED she plans to stay energetic within the battle in opposition to mass surveillance and authorities secrecy. Describing herself as “extra of a warrior than a supervisor,” she says her intent is to return to frontline advocacy. She can also be at work on a forthcoming guide, Privateness’s Defender, due out subsequent spring, which she hopes will encourage a brand new technology of digital rights advocates.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
WIRED: Inform us concerning the fights you gained, and those that also really feel unfinished after 25 years.
CINDY COHN: The early battle that we made to release encryption from authorities regulation nonetheless stands out as setting the stage for a probably safe web. We’re nonetheless engaged on turning that promise right into a actuality, however we’re in such a unique place than we might’ve been in had we misplaced that battle. Encryption protects anyone who buys something on-line, anybody who makes use of Sign to be a whistleblower or journalists, or simply common individuals who need privateness and use WhatsApp or Sign. Even the backend-certificate authorities supplied by Let’s Encrypt—that make it possible for whenever you suppose you are going to your financial institution, you are truly going to your financial institution web site—are all made potential due to encryption. These are all issues that will’ve been in danger if we hadn’t gained that battle. I believe that win was foundational, although the fights aren’t over.
The fights that we have had across the NSA and nationwide safety, these are nonetheless works in progress. We weren’t profitable with our massive problem to the NSA spying in Jewel v. NSA, though over the lengthy arc of that case and the accompanying legislative fights, we managed to claw again fairly a little bit of what the NSA began doing after 9/11.
