Privacy's Defender

About this episode

Cindy Cohn discusses her new book 'Privacy's Defender' and the importance of privacy in the digital age.

For more than three decades, Cindy Cohn , the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been at the center of the fight to protect privacy, free expression, and innovation online—taking on the NSA’s mass surveillance programs, defending encryption, and pushing back against efforts to weaken digital security in the name of safety. In her new book, Privacy's Defender , she reflects on the landmark cases that shaped the modern internet, the values that guide EFF’s work, and why privacy is not about hiding wrongdoing, but about preserving human autonomy and democracy in a networked world. Rainey Reitman , co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, leads our conversation. Grab your copy of Privacy's Defender : https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051248/privacys-defender/ This conversation was recorded on 02/23/2026. Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

People in this episode

Host: Rainey Reitman

Guest: Cindy Cohn

Topics covered

• privacy
• digital security
• free expression
• internet rights
• surveillance
• human autonomy

Keywords

• privacy
• Cindy Cohn
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• digital security
• encryption
• mass surveillance
• free expression

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Books & works: Privacy's Defender

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