Online privacy pioneer says people are finally waking up

Source Domain: jweekly.com

Cindy Cohn showed up on Zoom wearing a custom T-shirt — the same one she gave to Jon Stewart before her appearance this spring on “The Daily Show” — that read: “Let’s sue the government.”

Cohn, 62, is executive director of the S.F.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was founded in 1990 to defend civil liberties in the digital realm, particularly focused on safe-guarding privacy and the protection of free expression. A former human rights lawyer, the San Francisco resident is considered a pioneer in privacy and surveillance law through her work with EFF.

Cohn’s been with the nonprofit for 26 years and plans to step away this summer. She’s also written a new book, “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance,” that was published in March.

She’s leaving EFF because she wants to “get a little closer to the fight,” whether that means heading back in the courtroom or writing briefs.

“Luckily or unluckily, there is a lot of need for people who want to sue the government right now, so I am hopeful that I can throw in my talents and continue to be some help,” she said.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You grew up in a small town in Iowa where yours was one of the few Jewish families. How has this shaped your life and work?

The experience of growing up Jewish in a town where there weren’t very many of us really gave me a deep understanding about what it was like to be an outsider, and that informed so much of my work.

We were not very religious, but there was the idea that you would always question everything and that it was OK not to know. My father always said he was fundamentally agnostic, and I think there is something very Jewish about that.

Our town was very Christian. We weren’t discriminated against in an intentional way, more casually ignored. I was in the choir [at my public high school]. The choir director was a very…

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