Cindy CohnEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

If you've ever heard code is an expression of free speech you have Cindy Cohn to thank. Her decades of work in courtrooms and at the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been keeping Open Source, open and private communications, private. We got to chat about her new book Privacy's Defender and take a look at the future by hearing stories from the past. Privacy's Defender book Cindy's SCaLE keynote

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-based civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. Throughout her career, EFF’s executive director has been driven by a fundamental question: Can we still have private conversations if we live our lives online? Her new book, Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance , chronicles her battles to protect our right to digital privacy. Cohn weaves her own personal story with the history of the Crypto Wars, FBI gag orders, and the post-9/11 surveillance state. She describes how she became a seasoned leader in the early digital rights movement, as well as how this work serendipitously helped her discover her birth parents and find her life partner. Along the way, she also details the development of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which she grew from a ragtag group of lawyers and hackers into “one of the most powerful digital rights organizations in the world.” Cohn will be joined by Adam Savage, former co-host of the Discovery Channel show “Mythbusters,” to talk about the issues raised in her book, EFF’s work, and the emerging battle over AI surveillance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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!

Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. But it’s also a memoir, framing the issues raised by legal battles through personal choices and life events both mundane and momentous. In this unusual conversation, we leave the big legal questions behind and focus instead on our modern lives on the internet. What do women get from privacy and freedom of speech when men so often use their own privacy and freedom of speech to restrict women’s online behavior? How does the internet mirror the real world when it comes to harassment and bullying of women? How would proposed fixes to the internet’s free speech woes restrict women’s speech even further?

NOTE: The audio of this episode is the broadcast version of this episode for radio stations only. Visit BABBLERY.com for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • Amazon • TuneIn Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy […]

Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. But it’s also a memoir, framing the issues raised by legal battles through personal choices and life events both mundane and momentous. In this unusual conversation, we leave the big legal questions behind and focus instead on our modern lives on the internet. What do women get from privacy and freedom of speech when men so often use their own privacy and freedom of speech to restrict women’s online behavior? How does the internet mirror the real world when it comes to harassment and bullying of women? How would proposed fixes to the internet’s free speech woes restrict women’s speech even further?

We recently interviewed Cindy Cohn, EFF Executive Director and author of her new memoir: “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance” View on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PFv0ki3nDc Listen in your favorite podcast app: https://privacyinterviews.transistor.fm/episodes/defending-privacy-w-cindy-cohn-effs-executive-director The RSS feed for our audio interviews is separate from This Week in Privacy, you can find it at https://privacyinterviews.transistor.fm/subscribe ★ Support this podcast ★

Privacy Guides sat down with EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn to reflect on her over 30 years of service defending privacy and digital civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the importance of community in activist spaces, and the big picture in our fight for privacy. Cindy Cohn's memoir, Privacy's Defender, is now available at a variety of retailers: https://www.eff.org/Privacys-Defender In "Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance," Cindy (@EFForg) 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. Timestamps: 00:15 Intro 00:39 What Was the Most Impactful Case of Your Career? 01:09 What Case Are You Most Proud Of? 02:03 Should We Fight Private Companies Instead of Government? 03:46 Are the Current Issues What You Expected To Be Dealing With? 07:37 Why Privacy Matters At Every Level 09:30 The Founding Fathers & Privacy 10:08 The Space For Everyone in the Privacy Fight 11:11 Why "The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" Falls Short 14:12 Are Our Privacy Rights Innate Or Do We Have To Go Take Them? 17:00 The Importance of Spaces Away From Privacy 20:05 How Can We Stay Motivated In the Fight For Privacy? 21:53 The Wisdom of Eva Galperin 23:57 The Importance of Community 25:45 How Can We Foster Healthy Communities ? 28:40 Everything We Need to Know About Jawboning 32:22 Why The App Store Duopoly Is a Nightmare 33:59 How Do We Know What The Government Is Currently Up To? 38:06 Open Comments Please 👍 like and 🔔 subscribe to our channel to support our work and find out about our latest video content! 💬 Join the community: https://discuss.privacyguides.net ❤️ Support our work: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/donate/ 🏡 Visit our website: https://www.privacyguides.org Have a question, comment, or tip for us? You can securely reach us on Signal at @privacyguides.01 https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/ Copyright ©️ 2026 Privacy Guides. This video is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license. You can read the full license text here: https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/blob/main/LICENSE YouTube is known for silent censorship and general privacy malfeasance. If you want to discuss this video you can do so on our forum at https://discuss.privacyguides.net in addition to commenting here, and you can follow our channel on the fediverse at: https://neat.tube/c/privacyguides/videos Privacy Guides is a nonprofit project dedicated to promoting privacy, best cybersecurity practices, and digital rights. As a part of MAGIC Grants, a 501(c)(3) public charity, your donation to support our cause may be tax deductible.

A group of about 50 former national security officials sent a letter to Congress on Tuesday urging lawmakers to approve a “clean” renewal of an electronic surveillance authority slated to expire later this month (Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). ~This episode is sponsored by Tangem~ Tangem ➜ https://bit.ly/TangemPBN Use Code: "PBN" for Additional Discounts! GUEST: Cindy Cohn, Executive Director Electronic Frontier Foundation Buy Cindy's Book on Amazon ➜ https://amzn.to/4cgQItD 00:00 intro 00:07 Sponsor: Tangem 00:32 Privacy's Defender 00:59 Jon Stewart vs Cindy Cohn 02:00 Did Jon Stewart understand solution? 03:40 KYC for Social Media 05:19 Tornado Cash vs DoJ 06:59 Surveillance Getting Worse 09:48 Section 702 13:43 Elon Censoring Crypto Twitter 15:40 Stablecoin Surveillance 16:59 Zero-Knowledge Proofs 17:49 TikTok user data 18:12 Polymarket as a Social platform 18:45 Elon and X 21:00 OnlyFans going Decentralized 21:55 DOGE Data leak 23:23 People only care about camera privacy 25:22 Discord face scanning data 27:23 Make America Private Again 27:50 Outro #Crypto #bitcoin #Ethereum ~Privacy's Defender🛡️Cindy Cohn INTERVIEW~ ⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺⎺ Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-paul-barron-crypto-show--4747781/support . Join our community! Barron Market Edge (FREE)➜ https://www.paulbarronnetwork.com/barron-market-edge-signup Private Telegram Group (FREE) ➜ https://t.me/+nISqoMxrok40NTcx Subscribe on YouTube ✅ https://bit.ly/PBNYoutubeSubscribe X/Twitter 📱 http://bit.ly/PBNtwitter Get official PBN merch! ➜ https://merch.paulbarronnetwork.com/ ~ The Best Self Custody Wallet ➜ https://tangem.com/en/ Use Code PBN for Additional Discounts! ~ The Best Crypto Exchange ➜ Coinbase, get up to $200 in crypto - coinbase-consumer.sjv.io/BARRON ~ Looking for the best tax havens for Crypto? Free Month with iTrust Capital ➜ Use PROMO CODE - PAUL BARRON https://rebrand.ly/PAULBARRON

This week Jason brings you an interview he did with The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s executive director Cindy Cohn, who recently announced she would be stepping down from the legendary digital rights nonprofit after decades of service. Cindy's new book “Privacy’s Defender,” is a memoir of her work to protect Americans’ privacy and fight government surveillance. Privacy’s Defender weaves Cindy’s life story through three incredibly important court cases. Rather than being a dry recounting of three complicated and technical cases, Cindy recounts her strategies in each case, the trials and tribulations she was going through during each period, and the stakes of each case. A quick backgrounder — the cases are Bernstein vs Department of Justice, decided in 1996, which established code and encryption as protected speech under the first amendment, a lasting decision that became critical in Apple’s lawsuit against the FBI in the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting. It also follows EFF’s lawsuit against AT&T for building a secret backdoor in its internet data centers that gave data to the NSA for warrantless surveillance against American citizens, a case that was built in part around testimony and documents shared by Mark Klein, who showed schematics and design documents for secret surveillance rooms in AT&T’s offices. And finally it follows the Alphabet Cases, which were lawsuits against FBI gag orders for national security letters, which are secret demands for customer information that came with gag orders against internet companies that prevented them from disclosing the fact that the FBI approached them for information. Those cases concerned both Cloudflare and a telecom company called CREDO, and went on for many years. Our interview with Cindy shows that the fight for privacy happens in fits and spurts, and is rarely linear. Cindy's Book Privacy Defender : https://www.eff.org/Privacys-Defender Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/2OwH_XyfEhs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patti Vasquez is joined by Cindy Cohn , executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and author of "Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance .” Catch "Driving It Home with Patti Vasquez" weekdays from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/driving-it-home). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on That Tech Pod, Laura and Kevin sit down with Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to talk about the power structures hiding in plain sight across the internet, money, surveillance, and AI. Cindy breaks down what EFF actually does and why access to the internet is not just an infrastructure problem, but a civil liberties issue that shapes who gets heard, who gets tracked, and who gets left out. We get into how mass surveillance quietly became normal, from license plate readers to cell phone tracking, and why most people would be genuinely shocked if they saw the full picture. We also look ahead at financial surveillance, using Europe’s move toward a Digital Euro as a case study, and ask where legitimate oversight ends and control begins. On the AI front, Cindy pushes back on the idea that privacy is already lost, and explains why treating opaque systems as inevitable only benefits the most powerful actors. Cindy makes a clear case that defending digital rights does not require being a technologist or a lawyer. It starts with staying skeptical, asking hard questions, and refusing to accept tools we are not allowed to understand or challenge. That is exactly why this conversation mattered, and why we were so glad to have her on. Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and previously served as EFF’s Legal Director and General Counsel from 2000 to 2015. She has been involved with EFF since 1993, when she served as lead outside counsel in the landmark Bernstein v. U.S. Department of Justice case, a successful First Amendment challenge to U.S. export restrictions on cryptography. Her work has been widely recognized, with honors from Forbes , The National Law Journal , and The NonProfit Times for her influence in technology, law, and civil liberties. She is also the co-host of EFF’s podcast, How to Fix the Internet , and the author of Privacy’s Defender , published by MIT Press. More information about the book can be found at https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051248/privacys-defender/

What made the early web so thrilling, and how do we reclaim that spirit today? In this special episode, recorded at Georgetown University’s historic Riggs Library, leaders who helped build the internet and those fighting for its future come together to chart a path forward. Featuring Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive), Vint Cerf (Google), Cindy Cohn (EFF), and Jon Stokes (Ars Technica), and moderated by Luke Hogg of the Foundation for American Innovation, this conversation looks back at the web’s origins to imagine what a truly open, innovative, and empowering internet could still become. This conversation was recorded on 10/27/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/wayback-to-the-future-celebrating-the-open-web Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

How are dark patterns and deceptive practices impacting fundamental rights such as freedom and privacy? The raise of Ai is exacerbating transparency issues and the potential for AI-powered dark patterns, highlighting the the importance of informed decision-making and the need for individuals to have the ability to enforce their rights. To understand more about it, Marie Potel-Seville sits with Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) . From 2000-2015 she served as EFF’s Legal Director as well as its General Counsel. Ms. Cohn first became involved with EFF in 1993, when EFF asked her to serve as the outside lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography. To go further: EFF Podcast : https://feeds.eff.org/howtofixtheinternet Have a question or need some support? Visit us at fairpatterns.com and follow us on LinkedIn: FairPatterns ! Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

In this episode, we talk to Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She has led major battles defending rights in the digital age, from fighting for crypto freedom to challenging government surveillance. Cindy explains why decentralization is core to EFF’s vision for user empowerment online. She also gives advice to decentralized tech builders on thinking through policy obstacles, getting the law on your side, and lifting up positive examples of how the tech helps people.

The Priv8 Podcast this week welcomes Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. Join us for a deep dive on ways to fix the Internet, the global encryption debate, defending freedom of speech, and why privacy is a human right.

Regulatory scrutiny will always be part of the bargain when it comes to the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. To talk about some of the current policy issues surrounding crypto, we spoke with Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). 25 years ago, Cindy helped lead the Bernstein vs. The Department of Justice court case, which established software code as protected speech under the US civil rights first amendment. If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Start your crypto journey with Blockchain.com today. Sign up for a Wallet: https://bit.ly/3k4Fr5B Trade on the Exchange: https://bit.ly/3pODxtg

If you were on the internet back in the day, you might remember the excitement that came with it. The technology, the opportunities, the democratization of knowledge, and a new way to freely communicate with everyone and about everything. Well, not quite so. “When EFF was founded on July 10, 1990, it was revolutionary to imagine ordinary people possessing technology that could instantly erase distance, create connection, and access much of the world’s knowledge. The early Internet was an extraordinary place burgeoning with possibilities, and while the early users of digital world didn’t necessarily reflect the wider world or always get things right, they could see that this “new home of Mind” would change everything. But EFF wasn’t founded on a naïve belief that the coming change would create a digital utopia. Quite the contrary. For all the joy, creativity, and togetherness that technology can help bring, EFF took root because even from those early days it was clear that powerful new digital tools could be used to hurt as well as to heal. Censorship, corporate and government surveillance, and efforts to lock down and control innovation and innovators were all present from the beginning, too. EFF was created to fight against injustice and stand for freedom. Thirty years later we’re still standing, and taller than ever before.” — Cindy Cohn | EFF Executive Director *Read the full piece EFF's 30th Anniversary: https://www.eff.org/tags/eff30 _______________________ Guest Cindy Cohn | Executive Director at Electronic Frontier Foundation On Linkedin 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-cohn-9325/ EFF On Twitter 👉 https://twitter.com/EFF _______________________ This Episode’s Sponsors Nintex: https://itspm.ag/itspntweb Blue Lava: https://itspm.ag/blue-lava-w2qs _______________________ Resources Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org _______________________ For more podcast stories from Audio Signals: https://www.itspmagazine.com/audio-signals Are you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel? 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/podcast-series-sponsorships Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com In today’s Omni Show episode, we conclude our two-part privacy special by welcoming the Electronic Frontier Foundation ’s Executive Director, Cindy Cohn, into the conversation. Ken, Cindy, and Andrew chat about why you care about your privacy and user agency as it relates to iOS’s recent update ( Click here to catch up on part one). We then broaden the conversation to include techniques and tips you can use to better protect your privacy as you surf online. You can find out more about Omni’s ongoing commitment to your privacy in our brand new privacy page . Find out more about the EFF’s amazing efforts at protecting your digital rights here. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Cindy Cohn Electronic Frontier Foundation OmniFocus OmniPlan OmniOutliner

Go down the rabbit hole with Cindy Cohn, Executive Director for EFF, an organization that advocates for our civil liberties and freedom online. A fascinating conversation on the encryption wars, NSA, protecting our 4th amendment rights, and EFF’s battle against the dragnet policy.

Data privacy has become hot button issue for anyone using the Internet. Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a key figure in protecting the digital civil liberties of millions of people around the world. She joins The Webby Podcast to discuss her first case at the EFF, against leaving encryption capabilities in government hands, to the EFF’s current work to decentralize social networks, and more. Keep up with David-Michel @dmdlikes Our Producer is Terence Brosnan Our Editorial Lead is Jordana Jarrett Music is Podington Bear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 9 Scott and Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org, the world's first and still largest NGO fighting for internet freedom, discuss the ups and downs of the digital age, where it has been and where it is likely to go.

The End of Trust is the first-ever nonfiction issue of McSweeney’s, co-edited by McSweeney’s editors and the staff of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; on December 11, we held a sold-out launch event in San Francisco with EFF executive director Cindy Cohn, science fiction writer and EFF alumna Annalee Newitz, and me. Lisa Rein recorded the event for Mondo 2000 , producing a partial transcript , an audio recording ( MP3 ) and a video . Cindy Cohn: “The first reason is that there’s a fundamental constitutional question at the centerpiece regarding how we are going to interact with our technology, that can make all the other questions easier. The second reason is that all of the direct actions that you might want to take in order to exercise your self-governance and have your voice heard, requires some kind of legal protection, right? And when we talk about “direct action,” the reason that you can do direct action and not end up with a very long jail sentence is because, in the United States, compared to other places around the world, is because the Constitution says you can. All the hackers who EFF represents, who tell us all the things about the security problems and the surveillance – if we don’t get the law right, they’re not going to be able to do that. So, I often say that about EFF that we’re kind of the plumbers of freedom. We’re trying to get the obstacles out of the way, so that all the other things you can do to exercise your rights in the digital world can really flow freely. And so, I think for both of those reasons, EFF was grounded in the law. But also, at this point, we build technology. We have an action center. We support a lot of people that do a lot of direct action. We support a lot of people that need to protect themselves, that do direct action, and all sorts of other things. So although we are firmly grounded in the law, and that’s my background, the organization has really trying to grown to build a lot of different tools in our toolbox to deal with these problems. Cindy Cohn & Cory Doctorow & Annalee Newitz Discuss “The End of Trust” [Lisa Rein/Mondo 2000]

Sanford Ungar, director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, discusses issues of Free Speech and privacy in the internet age, with Cindy Cohn of the Electric Frontier Foundation. This interview was recorded on February 22, 2018.