The Daily Show: Ears Edition No Kings Rallies Can’t Stop CPAC's Trump Glazing & Iran War Hits One Month | Cindy Cohn
Mar 31, 2026
Cindy Cohn, civil liberties attorney and longtime EFF leader, discusses her new book on three decades fighting digital surveillance. She traces encryption battles, post‑9/11 mass data collection, and how governments access company data. Short takes explore risks of bad regulation, why tech giants thrive, and privacy‑first alternatives like Mastodon and Blue Sky.
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Why EFF Started Protecting Digital Rights
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation was created to protect civil liberties online as the Internet grew into a platform for speech and collaboration.
- Founders like John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore reacted to early FBI missteps and realized the Internet's lack of built-in security would enable widespread surveillance.
Cindy's Chance Meeting Led Her To EFF
- Cindy Cohn joined EFF after meeting founders at a party in San Francisco where early internet pioneers were already collaborating online.
- She came from human rights law and was drawn to apply that perspective to the nascent online world.
How 9/11 Reshaped Surveillance Into Mass Metadata Collection
- After 9/11 US policy shifted from warrants to mass data collection, treating metadata as low‑risk despite its power when aggregated.
- Metadata became a tool for large‑scale surveillance, enabling actions like targeting and raids without traditional probable cause.
