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Cindy Cohn

Author and civil liberties attorney; formerly Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Search every verified Cindy Cohn interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Cindy Cohn, former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, discussed the legal and technical implications of post-quantum cryptography in a May 2025 interview. She described cryptography as a "cat-and-mouse game" and said that assumptions about computational complexity can become treated as immutable without being revisited. Cohn argued that post-quantum algorithms are not yet strong enough and that organizations holding important data need pressure to upgrade their systems, adding that ignoring the need for upgrades would only "pretend to protect people's privacy." In August 2026, Cohn appeared on "Other Voices," a conversation series produced by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, to discuss her book *Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance*. During the conversation, she said that the U.S. government is the largest purchaser of information from data brokers, citing FBI Director Kash Patel's congressional testimony, and argued that government access to personal data should require judicial oversight. The audiobook edition of *Privacy's Defender*, narrated by Cohn, was released in March 2026.

Recent appearances

  • Interview with Cindy Cohn about Cryptography and Quantum Information Theory

    October 10, 2026 · 📺 Post Quantum Cryptography Inquiry

    Cindy Cohn, American civil liberties attorney specializing in Internet law. She served as executive director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in 2025. In 1995, Cohn represented Daniel J. Bernstein and the EFF in Bernstein v. United States, challenging U.S. government restrictions on the export of cryptographic software. EFF is the leading nonprofit in San Francisco defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation for 35 years. Interview made in May 2025. San Francisco, California. The Post-Quantum Cryptography Inquiry is a video survey into the Science of Cryptography in th…

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  • Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance Audiobook by Cindy Cohn

    September 23, 2026 · 📺 Free Audiobook

    Listen to free audiobook on Audible : https://amzn.to/4hopIfn Title: Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance Author: Cindy Cohn Narrator: Cindy Cohn Length: 8:36:14 Release date: 03-10-2026 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Genres: Non-Fiction, Current Affairs, Law, & Politics, Social Science, Computers & Technology Language: English Description: A personal chronicle of three key legal privacy battles that have defined the digital age and shaped the internet as we know it. From a seasoned leader in the field of digital privacy rights. Throughout her career, Cin…

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  • Confronting the Surveillance State: A Conversation with Cindy Cohn

    August 26, 2026 · 📺 Peninsula Peace and Justice Center

    Produced by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center Silicon Valley / San Francisco Peninsula https://peaceandjustice.org/ OTHER VOICES: A Monthly Conversation for Activists A conversation with CINDY COHN Former Exec. Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/ Author, “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance" Hosted by PAUL GEORGE Director, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center From EFF: “Former EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn has devoted her life to the fight for digital rights. She’s tangled with federal officials to keep our online conversations s…

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  • Meet the Iowan who has spent decades fighting for your rights online

    July 31, 2026 · 📺 Iowa Public Radio

    Cindy Cohn, originally from Newton, Iowa, became one of the country's foremost digital rights lawyers. Her new memoir is titled 'Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance.' Part legal history, part personal story and part rallying cry, it's front-row account of the legal battles that shaped the internet we use every day. Cohn discusses the book, growing up in Iowa, your rights online and more. (This show was originally produced April 9, 2025.)

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  • Who's Watching? Safeguarding Our Privacy (Democracy Forum 6/28/26)

    July 10, 2026 · 📺 Indivisible Palo Alto Plus

    By Cara Silver From license plate readers and Amazon Ring cameras to AI and autonomous vehicles, new technologies are tracking our every move. The issue of mass surveillance has emerged as an increasingly serious concern among IPA+ members—and among people throughout the region and across the country. On June 28, IPA+ hosted “Who’s Watching: Safeguarding Our Privacy,” a special event designed to help attendees explore this issue. Roughly 150 people attended the event, held at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto. It was the third installment of the IPA+ Democracy Forum series. The event be…

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  • Hard Fork Live: Robots, Revelry and the A.I. Revolution

    June 26, 2026 · 📺 Hard Fork

    Missed our live show? As promised, here is Hard Fork's full live event in San Francisco! A few weeks ago, we took the show on the road, but not too far from home. Our evening in San Francisco featured exclusive interviews with CEOs, lawyers, podcasters and robots. Whether you couldn’t make it out to California or if just want to relive the chaos, here's the full show. Guests: Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft. Phil Mohun, executive director of Node. Cindy Cohn, former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dylan Field, chief executive and co-founde…

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  • Episode 78: Privacy’s Defender Cindy Cohn on Encryption, Surveillance, Privacy Rights, and the Fu...

    June 24, 2026 · 📺 MarketectureTV

    Alan Chapell sits down with Cindy Cohn, former Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and author of Privacy’s Defender. They discuss the landmark Bernstein encryption case, the Snowden revelations, surveillance, behavioral advertising, privacy regulation, competition law, some lessons for companies in the ads space, and the future of digital rights in an increasingly monitored world.  Privacy’s Defender is available at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/978026205124... Can Privacy Technologies Replace Cookies? Ad Revenue in a Field Experiment is available at: htt…

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  • She’s Fought Online Spying for 30 Years. Here’s What’s Next.

    June 17, 2026 · 📺 Hard Fork

    Cindy Cohn has spent three decades fighting for online privacy and digital rights. "In the '90s, we didn’t anticipate that spying on everybody would become the number one business model of the internet," she said during Hard Fork's recent live event in San Francisco. Cohn is the former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (E.F.F.) and the author of "Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance." She spoke to Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, the hosts of Hard Fork, about the current state of mass surveillance, the disconnect between tech platforms and…

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  • Privacy's Defender: An Interview With EFF's Cindy Cohn

    May 29, 2026 · 📺 Nick Espinosa

    Cindy Cohn is one of the world's leading advocates for digital rights and online freedom. She is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF. Cindy has spent more than three decades fighting landmark battles for us over encryption, privacy, free expression, and government surveillance. It's my great honor to interview her today!

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  • The Fight Against AI-Powered Surveillance with EFF's Cindy Cohn and Adam Savage

    May 28, 2026 · 📺 Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California

    When the Pentagon formally designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk” this March, the dispute put a spotlight on civil liberties concerns in the AI-era. Anthropic had reportedly hit an impasse with the Trump administration over the company’s push for guardrails banning the use of its Claude model to conduct mass surveillance. Anthropic’s CEO had called such surveillance a “red line” it would not cross. But where exactly should those lines be drawn, and who should draw them? Few people have spent more time thinking about those issues than Cindy Cohn, executive director of the San Francisco-bas…

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  • Cindy Cohn: Privacy's Defender

    May 18, 2026 · 📺 Plutopia News Network

    Cindy Cohn joins Plutopia to discuss her new book, Privacy’s Defender, and reflects on her decades of work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, from the landmark Bernstein encryption case to fights against NSA mass surveillance and national security letters. She argues that privacy limits the power of governments, corporations, and individuals, and that winning the battle to free encryption was one of the most important victories for digital civil liberties because it made modern secure communication and online commerce possible. The conversation expands into current threats, including Cha…

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  • Ep480 Cindy Cohn Privacys Defender

    May 11, 2026 · 📺 Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons

    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: ht…

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“I mean the ultimate zero day, right? I think that it's very very dangerous and this is something that EFF has been pushing on governments around the world from the beginning, that putting everybody's security at risk so you can keep a secret attack is very very dangerous for everybody else. Why? Because you're not the only smart person in the world. It's just not the case that as smart as the people at the NSA are, t”

“The number one purchaser of information from data brokers right now in the United States is the government. Um, and you know, FBI director Cash Patel just testified in front of Congress that they're going to keep doing it. So, it's not just the government at large, it's the it's the FBI. It's the part of, you know, part of the government that could put you in jail, right? And they purchase massive amounts of this. No”

“Turnkey totalitarianism is actually Ed Snowden's term, but I think it's appropriate. That essentially, we have been worried that if we build all of this surveillance capability and all of this ability to collect information about us and then analyze it and use it in ways that we can't control, that this would be a tremendous tool for a government that really wanted to abuse its citizens or even subsets of its citizen”

“I don't think mass surveillance is the solution to societal problems. So I'd like my tax dollars back. And you know, I think that depending on the particular problem you're trying to solve, it's interesting to me because your hypo was about a stolen car driving by, right? And Brian just told us like they're not even investigating those, right? So, the stories that we're being told about how this stuff is successful, ”

“Right after 9/11, there was a big shift in this country where we seem to have lost our ability to say no first to the national security authorities and then to local, state, local law enforcement across the board. Which is kind of ahistorical if you think about it. You know, the US Constitution, if you look at the Bill of Rights, it's a whole set of things saying no to what government can do. The fourth amendment is ”

“I think we're living in a time where we're seeing that if you thought you weren't ever going to be a target of surveillance, that isn't a very safe bet anymore, right? And you know, I think the Dobbs decision, right, overturning Roe versus Wade suddenly made a lot of people who were engaged in reproductive assistance or needing reproductive help suddenly found themselves targeted by surveillance. We've got people who”

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