Please be respectful of the time of our attorneys. Direct all legal inquiries, not to the individual attorney, but to info@eff.org. All inquiries will be routed to info@eff.org. For expedited responses to media inquiries, please email press@eff.org.
Veridiana coordinates EFF's activities with local organizations and activists in Latin America, where we work together to reinforce the defense of digital and human rights. Veridiana has been involved with telecommunications, media, Internet and human rights issues since 2009. She has been a member of Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) as one of the civil society representatives (2010-2013) and worked in Brazilian civil organizations such as Idec and Intervozes. Veridiana is a lawyer, has a Ph.D in Human Rights from the University of São Paulo Law School, and holds a Masters degree in Economic Law from the same institution.
Andrés is Director of Consumer Privacy Engineering for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. His role covers policy and technical work in Privacy and Competition in areas like Drones, Telecommunications, to Online Services. He also oversees projects like Privacy Badger and Cover your tracks, and Cybersecurity issues like forensics investigations.
A Telecom and Electronics Engineer, he previously worked for Mobile Operators managing and developing projects from the Radio and Core networks to IT systems.
Seeing the state of privacy in the digital world from previous experiences, he joins the EFF to help develop tools that address these issues.
Meri Baghdasaryan is a public interest legal fellow at EFF. Before joining EFF, she conducted human rights litigation before the European Court of Human Rights, UN Human Rights Committee and Constitutional Court of Armenia. She also worked as a consultant for UNDP Armenia and Council of Europe. Meri has extensive engagement in the Internet governance (IG) ecosystem, as a member of SEEDIG and EuroDIG communities, former YCIG Steering Committee member for the Eastern European group, and editor of the SEESummary, covering digital policy and IG developments in South Eastern Europe and the neighboring area (SEE+). Meri was a member of 2020 cohort of Open Internet Leaders for Democracy program, a NextGen@ICANN72 and ARIN48 fellow. Her expertise and interests include issues related to privacy and data protection, freedom of speech, and youth participation in IG. Meri has an LL.M'21 from University of Pennsylvania Law School (Intellectual property and technology concentration), LL.M'15 in Human rights from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary), and LL.B'14 from Yerevan State University (Yerevan, Armenia).
Matthew is the Accounting Director at EFF. He has been a finance leader for several Bay Area nonprofits and brings his passion for civil liberties to EFF. Matthew enjoys spending time on the Russian River and hanging out with his partner and cat.
Daly Barnett is a staff technologist at the EFF. She is also an artist, activist, and community organizer. Before arriving to EFF, she was the founder of t4tech, a trans forward tech collective based in NYC. She is also a part of Hacking Hustling, a sex workers advocacy organization, where her title is Witch.
Bill Budington is a long-time activist, cryptography enthusiast, and a Senior Staff Technologist on EFF's Public Interest Technology team. His research has been featured in the The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and cited by the US Congress. He is the lead developer of Panopticlick, led HTTPS Everywhere from 2015-2018, and has contributed to projects like Let's Encrypt and SecureDrop. Bill has spoken at USENIX Enigma (2016), HOPE (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022), CCC (2017), InfoSec Southwest (2017), ShmooCon (2019, 2020), and other infosec conferences. Bill's primary interest lies in dismantling systems of oppression, building up collaborative alternatives and, to borrow a phrase from Zapatismo, fighting for a 'world in which many worlds fit.' He loves hacker spaces and getting together with other techies to tinker, code, share, and build the technological commons.
Jon Callas is a cryptographer, software engineer, user experience designer, and entrepreneur. Jon is the co-author of many crypto and security systems including OpenPGP, DKIM, ZRTP, Skein, and Threefish. Jon has co-founded several startups including PGP, Silent Circle, and Blackphone. Jon has worked on security, user experience, and encryption for Apple, Kroll-O'Gara, Counterpane, and Entrust.
Before coming to the EFF, Jon was a technologist in the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project on issues including surveillance, encryption, machine learning, end-user security, and privacy.
Jon is fond of Leica cameras, Morgan sports cars, and Birman cats. Jon's photographs have been used by Wired, CBS News, and The Guggenheim Museum.
Nicole has been supporting EFF's fundraising efforts since 2013. She originally led the major donor fundraising program, the organizational membership program, and planned EFF’s external events. In 2020, she became the Director of Donor Relations, focusing soley on EFF’s major donor program which included the creation and implementation of EFF’s Giving Societies. She now plans and executes annual campaigns while also leading two of the three Giving Societies: the MXM Society, EFF’s community of top-level major donors; and the Lighthouse Society, key supporters who have named EFF in their estate planning.
With over two decades of nonprofit experience, Nicole has managed a wide range of social justice-focused philanthropic efforts. At Tides Foundation, she led the grantmaking programs of individual donors and offered customized programmatic services to institutional funders. She also supported fiscally sponsored projects at both the Tides Center and the San Francisco Parks Trust. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, making pickles, and frolicking with baby goats.
Kim helps support the work of EFF's Engineering and Design team. She was previously on EFF's international team and managed the Surveillance Self-Defense project and content localization. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. in French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her free time, Kim enjoys running, hand lettering, and crossword puzzles.
Andrea came to EFF with years of experience in accounting. Prior to joining EFF, she was an Airline Accounts Specialist for MSAS Cargo International. Before that, she was a Bookkeeper for Spectrel International Corp. She likes to travel almost as much as she enjoys playing with the pets in our office.
Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 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.
Ms. Cohn has been named to TheNonProfitTimes 2020 Power & Influence TOP 50 list, honoring 2020's movers and shakers. In 2018, Forbes included Ms. Cohn as one of America's Top 50 Women in Tech. The National Law Journal named Ms. Cohn one of 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2013, noting: "[I]f Big Brother is watching, he better look out for Cindy Cohn." She was also named in 2006 for "rushing to the barricades wherever freedom and civil liberties are at stake online." In 2007 the National Law Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America. In 2010 the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California awarded her its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award and in 2012 the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded her the James Madison Freedom of Information Award.
Paige is the Senior Speech and Privacy Activist at EFF, where she focuses on the fulfillment of civil liberties and corporate threats to speech and privacy online. Passionate about highlighting how minoritised communities are stifled by state surveillance and corporate restrictions, she has worked with governments and activists across the globe to collaboratively facilitate change.
Prior to joining EFF, Paige led advocacy and campaigns at the Copenhagen-based Freemuse, an organisation defending the right to artistic and creative freedom; and worked as Press Manager for the Berlin-based Disruption Network Lab who operate at the intersection of politics, technology, and society. She has also worked for the Deputy Speaker in the UK Parliament, and with Orchid Project, who advocate for an end to female genital cutting. Paige holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and History from Brunel University London, and is currently studying for a Master’s degree in Law from Leeds Law School.
Sophia Cope is a Senior Staff Attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's civil liberties team, working on a variety of free speech and privacy issues. She has been a civil liberties attorney for over 15 years and has experience in both litigation and policy advocacy. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, Slate, and Huffington Post.
Prior to joining EFF, Sophia spent eight years in Washington, DC. She worked at the Newspaper Association of America (now, the News Media Alliance) on freedom of the press and digital media issues, with a focus on protecting journalists' confidential sources. She advocated for a federal shield law, a warrant-for-content requirement under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and improvements to the Freedom of Information Act. She also wrote a chapter for a book published by the American Bar Association entitled "Whistleblowers, Leaks and the Media: The First Amendment and National Security" and spoke out against NSA surveillance.
Prior to NAA, Sophia worked at the Center for Democracy & Technology on a variety of civil liberties and human rights issues related to the Internet and technology, including the regulation of content on the Internet and broadcast television, and the privacy implications of government identification programs; she also worked on the development and launch of the Global Network Initiative.
Before moving to Washington, Sophia litigated at the First Amendment Project in Oakland, California, where she defended an environmental activist against a frivolous lawsuit and a video journalist against a federal subpoena seeking his unpublished footage; she also counseled clients on how to obtain greater access to public records and public meetings.
Sophia was an adjunct professor of media law for nearly four years, teaching Washington-area undergraduate communication and journalism students. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She is proud to be a native Californian.
Keri is a Staff Accountant and the Senior Internal Events Coordinator at EFF. Her goal in life is to become an eccentric old lady when she grows up. She believes that just like bacon, anything goes with combat boots. When she is not working, she enjoys yoga, taking spin classes, watching independent film, writing haiku and playing fetch with her cat. Keri loves anything that is pink and sparkly and squeals like a six year old when she sees a puppy. She is known to wear party dresses, flowers in her hair and yes, combat boots.
Caitlyn is an artist who brings 10 years of chaotic-yet-versatile creative experience to EFF. She’s painted murals and festival installations, built puppets, designed a typeface, made chalk signs for local businesses, and worked as an in-house designer at tech companies large and small. As someone who partially owes her career to lurking around concept art blogs in the early 2000s, she believes in the internet’s vast potential to share knowledge, art, and interdisciplinary connection even with its flaws (and overabundance of Javascript). Her EFF work includes Who Has Your Face?, Cover Your Tracks, art for DEFCON, and a multi-year streak of illustrating The Foilies–which, to her great amusement, has given her the chance to have a drawing of a dumpster fire and a toilet in national syndication.
To see more of what she's made, check out her website.
Andrew is a senior staff attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s civil liberties team. He focuses on EFF’s national security and privacy docket, as well as the Coders' Rights Project. While in law school, Andrew worked at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, and the Center for Democracy and Technology. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University. His interests include Boggle and donuts.
Bennett is a staff technologist on the Tech Projects team. He works with a variety of teams across EFF, focusing on consumer privacy, competition, and state legislation. He also assists with development on Privacy Badger. Outside of work he has hobbies and likes fun.
As EFF's Creative Director, Hugh D'Andrade helps craft EFF's image by designing our websites, t-shirts, stickers, white papers, as well as the murals that grace our stairwell. Hugh has worked with EFF in various capacities since 2007, and is the artist behind some of EFF's most iconic images. All the work Hugh does for EFF is CC-licensed and can be downloaded, re-used and re-mixed from the EFF Flickr page. When Hugh isn't working for EFF, he creates illustrations for young adult novels, rock posters, magazines, and the occasional gallery wall. You can see more of his work on his personal website.
Daniel works to give EFF’s generous donors the best experience possible.
Before joining EFF he worked for a number of other cool nonprofits, including protecting the earth from asteroids with the B612 Foundation, making the world safer for bicyclists as Campaign Manager for America Bikes, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and teaching children about philanthropy with Common Cents NY.
He has an MPA with a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Evans School at the University of Washington and a BA in Sociology from Amherst College. He has been to every movie theater in San Francisco.
She kept showing up to the Magic the Gathering draft parties until eventually she was the one planning the parties.
When not doing computer stuff at EFF, Ben works on community wireless networks, open source, and recreational mathematics.
Kelly invokes her passion for all things numbers as EFF's Finance Director. Prior to joining the staff, she was a frequent volunteer at EFF events while honing her finance and accounting skills at a large public accounting firm. When her head is not buried deep in spreadsheets, she enjoys puzzles and games of most varieties, and attends local sporting events.
Ernesto Falcon is Senior Legislative Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation with a primary focus on intellectual property, open Internet issues, broadband access, and competition policy.
He represents EFF’s advocacy, on behalf of its members and all consumers, for a free and open Internet before state legislatures and Congress. Ernesto’s work includes pushing the state of California to pass the strongest net neutrality law in the country in response to federal repeal efforts, as well as leading EFF's research and advocacy to promote universally available, affordable, and competitive fiber broadband networks.
Prior to joining EFF, Ernesto worked as a legislative staffer for two members of Congress (2004-2010). He then became Vice President of Government Affairs at Public Knowledge (PK), where he was successful in leading the organization's efforts to defeat AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile in 2014. The following year, PK and EFF scored a major victory for consumers by rallying the Internet community to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). After eight years in Washington DC, he returned to his home state of California to attend law school at McGeorge School of Law and continue his work for digital rights advocacy. After becoming an attorney, Ernesto rejoined the fight for consumers and Internet freedom at EFF.
Cara focuses on trademark, copyright, and free speech issues as a staff attorney on EFF's intellectual property team. She also works on EFF's Coders' Rights Project, assisting programmers, developers, and researchers who are helping to build a safer future for us all. Cara came to EFF from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where her practice focused on trademark litigation and counseling. As a law student, Cara worked on First and Fourth Amendment issues at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and she was awarded a fellowship in the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program at NYU School of Law. Cara holds a J.D. from New York University and a B.A. in linguistics from Northwestern University.
Eva Galperin is EFF's Director of Cybersecurity. Prior to 2007, when she came to work for EFF, Eva worked in security and IT in Silicon Valley and earned degrees in Political Science and International Relations from SFSU. Her work is primarily focused on providing privacy and security for vulnerable populations around the world. To that end, she has applied the combination of her political science and technical background to everything from organizing EFF's Tor Relay Challenge, to writing privacy and security training materials (including Surveillance Self Defense and the Digital First Aid Kit), and publishing research on malware in Syria, Vietnam, Lebanon, and Kazakhstan. Since 2018, she has worked on addressing the digital privacy and security needs of survivors or domestic abuse. She is also a co-founder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware.
Gennie is the Activism Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she leads a team of advocates, researchers, and policy analysts working to defend and expand digital rights online. Her research and advocacy primarily focus on consumer privacy and security, with an emphasis on third-party tracking, platform policy, and secure messaging, as well as content moderation and open access.
Prior to joining EFF, Gennie was a Henry Luce Scholar in Laos and Thailand, and earned a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington Information School while doing research in the School of Computer Science and Engineering's Security & Privacy Research Lab. While at the UW, she also co-founded a successful initiative for a university open access policy. Outside of her EFF work, Gennie volunteers at the San Francisco Public Library and serves on the program committees of several computer science research venues.
Starchy came here to preserve uptime, fight for your rights online, run ultramarathons, and chew bubblegum, and he's all out of bubblegum.
Will is a Staff Technologist on the Tech Projects team. He's currently developing Certbot and has two perfect little cats, Kira and Dax.
David Greene, Senior Staff Attorney and Civil Liberties Director, has significant experience litigating First Amendment issues in state and federal trial and appellate courts and is one of the country's leading advocates for and commentators on freedom of expression in the arts. David was a founding member, with David Sobel and Shari Steele, of the Internet Free Expression Alliance, and currently serves on the Northern California Society for Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee, the steering committee of the Free Expression Network, the governing committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law, and on advisory boards for several arts and free speech organizations across the country. David is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he teaches classes in First Amendment and media law and an instructor in the journalism department at San Francisco State University. He has written and lectured extensively on many areas of First Amendment Law, including as a contributor to the International Encyclopedia of Censorship. Before joining EFF, David was for twelve years the Executive Director and Lead Staff Counsel for First Amendment Project, where he worked with EFF on numerous cases including Bunner v. DVDCCA. David also previously served as program director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression where he was the principal contributor and general editor of the NCFE Quarterly and the principal author of the NCFE Handbook to Understanding, Preparing for and Responding to Challenges to your Freedom of Artistic Expression. He also practiced with the firms Bryan Cave LLP and Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft. He is a 1991 graduate of Duke University School of Law.
David's work has been recognized by California Lawyer magazine as a 2013 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year, and by the SPJ Northern California as the recipient of its 2007 James Madison Freedom of information Award for Legal Counsel. He was also awarded The Hon. Ira A. Brown Adjunct Faculty Award by USF Law School in 2012.
Matthew Guariglia is a policy analyst working on issues of surveillance and policing at the local, state, and federal level. He received a PhD in history at the University of Connecticut where his research focused on the intersection of race, immigration, U.S. imperialism, and policing in New York City. He is the co-editor of The Essential Kerner Commission Report (Liveright, 2021) and his bylines have appeared in NBC News, the Washington Post, Slate, Motherboard, and the Freedom of Information-centered outlet Muckrock. Matthew is an affiliated scholar at University of California, Hastings-School of Law and serves as an editor of "Disciplining the City," a series on the history of urban policing and incarceration at the Urban History Association's blog The Metropole. (Photo by Zack Garlitos)
Karen Gullo is an award-winning former journalist working as an analyst and senior media relations specialist at EFF, collaborating with the organization's lawyers, activists, and technologists on strategic communications and messaging to amplify their amazing work defending civil liberties in the digital world. As a writer, editor, and former reporter with over two decades of experience at Bloomberg News and Associated Press in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and New York, Karen helps develop EFF's responses to media inquiries, and writes press statements and releases and op-eds about EFF's advocacy of online privacy and free speech, encryption, Fourth Amendment rights, copyright abuse, and much more. As an analyst, Karen writes blog posts and contributes to white papers on subjects ranging from student privacy and mass surveillance to private censorship, the First Amendment, and international surveillance and data protection treaties. She has worked on EFF activism projects holding social media platforms accountable for bad content moderation practices, exposing Amazon Ring's cozy relationships with local law enforcement, and pushing for the inclusion of human rights safeguards in the Council of Europe's revised Budapest Convention. She is also a contributing writer for feminism website SeismicSisters.com. Prior to joining EFF, Karen was a reporter at Bloomberg News from 2002 to 2015, where she broke stories about Google’s legal challenge to FBI national security letters. Before Bloomberg, Karen was a reporter for the Associated Press in New York and Washington, covering politics—including the 2000 presidential election—the Justice Department, campaign finance, federal contracting practices, and much more as a member of an investigative reporting team. Karen is the recipient of national and local journalism awards, including the Jesse H. Neal Award Business Journalism Award and the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club’s excellence in journalism awards. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, and resides in San Francisco.
Before EFF Lena worked in journalism, international development and tech. She studied the emergence of Open Source communities in Latin America, and later worked as a trainer, qualitative researcher and media producer with human rights groups in the field. She led the Twitter Localization team and has worked as a Product Manager and an Engineering Manager. At EFF, she works with the Engineering and Design team on internal tools and external-facing web applications. She's also part of the AI working group. Lena likes plants, philosophy and dogs.
Alexis works to encrypt the web by managing the Certbot and HTTPS Everywhere projects. She researches an intersection of issues on digital rights, encryption, and consumer technology. Deeply passionate about tech equity for all, she has been aiding activists and educators with their tech needs for over a decade.
She has spoken about user privacy, digital identity, cloud security, open technology standards, and government & corporate surveillance. She has worked in web development and application security for 10 years and has earned degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Media Arts and Technology (BS) and The New School in Organizational Change Management (MS).
Certifications: Security+, GFACT, GCLD, GPCS, GCSA
Mei joined EFF's development team as the first Associate Director of Institution Support to oversee and grow the grants, organizational membership, and institutional sponsorship programs. She brings over eight years of experience in successfully growing grants revenue at Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC). She has a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) from UC Berkeley, with a focus on environmental justice and historical and current factors that shape how women of color in the US experience and utilize city parks. She served on the Board of Directors at Bike East Bay in 2020-21 and was an Oakland Cultural Space Ambassador in 2019. Mei has a BS in Biology and Biotechnology with minors in Psychology and International Studies from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). She has been certified as a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor and is currently a certified Lifeguard. She has lived in many regions of the US, and especially loves the cultural diversity, geographic variety, and many microclimates in the SF Bay Area. She has a pattern of attraction to organizations that rely on acronyms in their names, and is excited to support EFF's crucial work in the areas of digital privacy, free speech, government transparency, and innovation.
Jacob is a lead developer on Let's Encrypt, the free and automated Certificate Authority. He also works on EFF's Encrypt the Web initiative and helps maintain the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension.
Prior to working at EFF, Jacob was on Twitter's anti-spam and security teams. On the security team, he implemented HTTPS-by-default with forward secrecy, key pinning, HSTS, and CSP. On anti-spam, he deployed new machine-learned models to detect and block spam in realtime. Before Twitter, he worked at Google, variously on the maps, transit, and shopping teams.
Saira Hussain is a Staff Attorney on EFF's civil liberties team, focusing on racial justice and surveillance. Previously, Saira was a Staff Attorney in the Criminal Justice Reform Program at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus (ALC), where she focused on disentangling federal immigration enforcement from local law enforcement through policy advocacy, litigation, and coalition-building. She started at ALC as a Berkeley Law Public Interest Fellow in the Immigrant Rights' Program, representing immigrants in deportation proceedings. In addition, Saira organizes with Survived and Punished CA to end the criminalization of survivors of gender-based and sexual violence. She received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law and her B.A. from UC Berkeley. Saira speaks Spanish and Urdu, and is an avid baker and yoga enthusiast.
Rebecca Jeschke is EFF's Managing Director, helping to ensure that EFF can do its best work to fight for digital rights now and into the future. Formerly, Rebecca was EFF's Media Relations Director and a Digital Rights Analyst, fielding press requests on a broad range of issues including privacy, free speech, and intellectual property matters. Her media appearances include Fox News, CNN, NPR, USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, and Harper's Magazine, and she has been a presenter at South by Southwest. Before joining EFF in 2005, Rebecca worked in television and Internet news for more than ten years, including stints as an Internet producer for CBS 5 in San Francisco and as a senior supervising producer for TechTV. She has also been a travel guide editor, an English teacher in the Dominican Republic, and a worker on a "slime line" gutting fish in Alaska. Rebecca is on the Advisory Board for the Internet Freedom Festival and on the Board of Directors of Alameda Family Services.
Aaron directs grassroots outreach for EFF's Development Team. He started in nonprofit development by managing membership at the New England Aquarium in Boston, and in donor operations at the Perkins School for the Blind. Upon returning to wonderful California, Aaron had the privilege of growing EFF's membership program for over eight years before becoming the team director. Aaron's interest in human rights and civil liberties crystallised during his years working with visitors at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles' Little Toyko, which educates the public about the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. He still carries the spirit of "gaman" perseverance everywhere he goes. He enjoys 70s and/or artsy foreign horror, cake sculpting, and generally making things out of other things.
Maggie is the Donor Operations and Logistics Manager at EFF. Since 2012, she's been thrilled to go to events around the country sharing information out about EFF's work, and manage data processing systems on the Development team. As ever, she is here to help support the future of the digital rights movement with all you activists, makers, hackers, and folks passionate about the future of the Internet.
Jason Kelley is a Digital and Campaign Strategist on EFF’s Activism Team. Before joining EFF, Jason managed marketing strategy and content for a software company that helps non-programmers learn to code, and advertising and marketing analytics for a student loan startup. Jason received his BA in English and Philosophy from Kent State University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from The University of the South. He tries daily to apply advice from his professor Sam Pickering, the inspiration for Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society: “Take out the extra words. Make it go quicker.”
Laura comes to us with an eclectic history of working in various non-profits, and with a Masters degree in Pastoral Ministry. Rather than becoming a Woman of The Cloth, she now supports the good works of EFF by keeping the day to day things that the organization needs to keep running, including making sure that staff never run out of coconut water.
Beryl Lipton, Investigative Researcher, focuses her work on government transparency, law enforcement surveillance technology, and other uses of technology by government actors. She has extensive experience using Freedom of Information laws and large-scale public records campaigns in her research.
At EFF, Beryl supports the Atlas of Surveillance, The Foilies, The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance, among other projects. She enjoys teaching others about the strengths and limitations of public records laws and discussing the potential and real harms of the surveillance state.
Prior to her work with EFF in 2020, she spent seven years as a projects editor at MuckRock, where she focused on prison privatization and other public-private partnerships. She is a board member for Spare Change News, the Boston area street newspaper, and contributes to Gannett New York, where she has spearheaded the collection and release of police misconduct records throughout New York state.
Photo credit: CC BY-NC-SA Cato Institute
Chao is a legislative associate at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He assists in EFF's advocacy for a free, open, and accessible internet in state legislatures and Congress.
He has a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.
As Surveillance Litigation Director, Jennifer Lynch leads EFF's legal work challenging government abuse of search and seizure technologies through the courts by filing lawsuits and amicus briefs in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, on important issues at the intersection of technology and privacy. Jennifer founded EFF's Street Level Surveillance Project, which informs advocates, defense attorneys, and decisionmakers about new police tools. In 2017, the First Amendment Coalition awarded her its Free Speech and Open Government Award for her years-long litigation against the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff's Departments seeking access to Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) records and for setting new precedent in California's public records law. In 2019, the Daily Journal named her to its annual list of Top 100 Lawyers in California, and in 2021, the Daily Journal further named her to its list of lawyers who "Defined the Decade" for her work "guarding privacy in an over-policed world." Jennifer has written influential white papers on biometric data collection in immigrant communities and law enforcement use of face recognition. She has also published on forensic genetic genealogy searches with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and on suspicionless police searches of consumer data as part of the Hoover Institution's Aegis Paper Series. She speaks frequently at legal and technical conferences as well as to the general public on technologies like location tracking, biometrics, algorithmic decisionmaking, and AI, and has testified on facial recognition before committees in the Senate and House of Representatives. She is regularly consulted as an expert on these subjects and others by major and technical news media.
Vernita is the Executive Team Coordinator for Electronic Frontier Foundation's Executive Team. Prior to joining EFF, she worked for an educational non-profit for 10 1/2 years. When not problem solving for the Exec Team, you will find her creating elaborate meals, rooting for all East Bay Pro Teams, watching Hallmark Movies, and supporting all things Disney.
José is a longtime trainer and agitator. You may remember him from such workshops as How Not to Talk to Law Enforcement and Grand Jury Resistance for the Soul.
As investigations director, Dave researches and writes about surveillance technology, government transparency, press freedoms, the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration enforcement, prisoner rights, and other digital rights issues. He leads the Atlas of Surveillance project in partnership with the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is a Reynolds Scholar in Residence.
Aaron works on free speech, anonymity, privacy, government surveillance and transparency. Before joining EFF in 2015, Aaron was in Washington, D.C. where he worked on speech, privacy, and freedom of information issues at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law. Aaron graduated from Berkeley Law in 2012, where he worked for EFF while a student in the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic. He also holds an LLM from Georgetown Law. Prior to law school, Aaron was a journalist at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, Arizona. He received his undergraduate degree in journalism and English from the University of Arizona in 2006, where he met his amazing wife, Ashley. They have two young children.
Prior to joining EFF, India spent over 10 years in Washington, DC as a legislative staffer to three members of Congress from California. Her work there primarily focused on the appropriations process, specifically analyzing and funding programs in the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Justice. Her biggest legislative accomplishment was authorizing, funding and then naming a new outpatient VA/DoD clinic that will serve over 80,000 people.
India’s passion has always been for good public policy, and she’s excited to be using skills developed during legislative battles to fight for consumer privacy and for robust surveillance oversight.
Corynne McSherry is the Legal Director at EFF, specializing in intellectual property, open access, and free speech issues. Her favorite cases involve defending online fair use, political expression, and the public domain against the assault of copyright maximalists. As a litigator, she has represented Professor Lawrence Lessig, Public.Resource.Org, the Yes Men, and a dancing baby, among others, and one of her first cases at EFF was In re Sony BMG CD Technologies Litigation (aka the "rootkit" case). She was named one of California's Top Entertainment Lawyers and was also named AmLaw's "Litigator of the Week" for her work on Lenz v. Universal. Her policy work includes leading EFF’s effort to fix copyright (including the successful effort to shut down the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA), promote net neutrality, and promote best practices for online expression. She testified before Congress about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Section 230. Corynne comments regularly on digital rights issues and has been quoted in a variety of outlets, including NPR, CBS News, Fox News, the New York Times, Billboard, the Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone. Prior to joining EFF, Corynne was a litigator at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, LLP. Corynne has a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Ph.D from the University of California at San Diego, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. While in law school, Corynne published Who Owns Academic Work?: Battling for Control of Intellectual Property (Harvard University Press, 2001).
Alex is a born-and-raised San Franciscan with a nonprofit and arts-focused professional background who is extremely proud to have joined the fighting ranks of EFF. She is here to help our awesome donors and supporters have the best experience possible. Outside of EFF, Alex moonlights as a performing artist and voice actor, and enjoys creating and consuming theater, film, music and vegan snacks. She also likes cats. A lot.
Alexei works on Privacy Badger. He previously led product/engineering of Ghostery, another popular browser privacy addon.
Alexy has spent more than a decade using web technologies to solve problems. He is a strong believer in using computing to empower others.
Previously he worked on projects supporting nonprofits and educational institutions, from simple sites to complicated workflows.
As Associate Director of Community Organizing, Rory (they/them) coordinates EFF's support of local advocacy groups. Much of this work is done through the grassroots information-sharing network, the Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA).
Prior to joining the EFF, Rory studied activist pedagogy and adolescent use of social media as a doctoral student of psychology. As a student, instructor, and researcher, they advocated for student and worker privacy, open science, and open education on campus. They were also active in several New York City community projects like CyPurr Collective, an EFA member group focused on accessible digital security trainings.
Rory believes in the potential for digital technology to support more autonomous communities and advance social equity. As such, they connect these principles to a variety of topic areas such as decentralization, Extended Reality, and Right to Repair.
Olivia is Arizona-born and recently relocated to San Francisco (for the second time) from Portland, Oregon. She's currently managing the awesome team that does all things donor operations related and is excited to be a part of such a unique and cutting edge organization. Her background is in non-profit fundraising and she has worked for places such as Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and the Portland Japanese Garden. When she isn't at work delving into databases and bribing the office dogs with treats to love her-she is hiking, camping, generally being outside (a lifetime of many triple-digit days will do that to a person) and enjoying time with her goofy dog, Hank. All while also trying to bribe dogs with treats to love her.
Shirin uses design and educational strategy to empower people to protect their privacy and promote equity and accessibility. Her work includes web design, graphics, usability, user research, instructional design and the occasional animations for EFF projects. On the content end, Shirin also works on digital security and security education, as well as dark patterns and design legislation.
Misha was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and have been living in Vallejo for about 2 years. She had a long-term experience in customer service, homeless prevention and a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and pursued an additional education for early childhood development, She now supports Electronic Frontier Foundation's as an Operations Coordinator making sure that EFF staff feel comfortable at work and, she’s helping with preparations that the organization needs to keep running smoothly. After hours Misha usually spend her time making candles and decorating it like a dessert. (cupcakes, ice cream & even coffee etc)
Madeleine is the legal support manager on the legal team. Prior to joining EFF she worked in practices that represented consumers in complex class action litigation. She has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. from Camberwell College of Art, London.
Joe Mullin is a policy analyst at EFF, where he works on patents, encryption, platform liability, and free expression online. Before joining EFF, Joe worked as a reporter covering legal affairs for the technology website Ars Technica, and American Lawyer’s magazine group. Earlier in his journalism career, Joe wrote for The Associated Press and The Seattle Times. He has a bachelors degree in history and a masters in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Outside of his work at EFF, Joe enjoys trail running and cycling.
Kurt Opsahl is the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In addition to representing clients on civil liberties, free speech and privacy law, Opsahl counsels on EFF projects and initiatives. Opsahl is the lead attorney on the Coders' Rights Project, and is representing several companies who are challenging National Security Letters. Before joining EFF, Opsahl worked at Perkins Coie, where he represented technology clients with respect to intellectual property, privacy, defamation, and other online liability matters, including working on Kelly v. Arribasoft, MGM v. Grokster and CoStar v. LoopNet. For his work responding to government subpoenas, Opsahl is proud to have been called a "rabid dog" by the Department of Justice. Prior to Perkins, Opsahl was a research fellow to Professor Pamela Samuelson at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information Management & Systems. Opsahl received his law degree from Boalt Hall, and undergraduate degree from U.C. Santa Cruz. Opsahl co-authored "Electronic Media and Privacy Law Handbook." In 2007, Opsahl was named as one of the "Attorneys of the Year" by California Lawyer magazine for his work on the O'Grady v. Superior Court appeal. From 2014 to 2022, Opsahl served on the USENIX Board of Directors. Opsahl is a member of the Filecoin Foundation Advisory Board and the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee’s Technical Advisory Council.
As the Intake Coordinator here at EFF, Haley is the first point of contact for legal assistance and general information about EFF for the public. Prior to EFF, she's worked as a researcher and writer for various local, national, and international human rights organizations. She’s also a big fan of live music, good food, other people’s dogs, and traveling far and wide around the planet.
Jennifer Pinsof is a staff attorney on EFF’s civil liberties team. Her work focuses on free speech, privacy, and government transparency in the digital age. Prior to joining EFF, Jennifer was a legal fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute, a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School’s Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic, and a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Before law school, she worked at a software company specializing in data analytics. Jennifer holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from Cornell University.
Erica develops the Let's Encrypt client Certbot, which makes it easy for people who run websites to turn on https, keeping their users private and secure against network-based attackers. She writes and speaks about encryption in practice, including what people need from secure messaging providers and what the next generation of encryption in the cloud might look like. Erica previously worked on EFF's net neutrality project, writing technical filings and opinion pieces and organizing technologists from the networking industry to speak up for technical accuracy in policy decisions.
Cooper is a security researcher and Senior Staff Technologist with the EFF Threat Lab. He has worked on projects such as Privacy Badger, Canary Watch, and analysis of state sponsored malware campaigns such as Dark Caracal. He has also performed security trainings for activists, non profit workers and ordinary folks, and given talks about security research at security conferences around the world. He previously worked building websites for non-profits, such as Greenpeace, Adbusters, and the Chelsea Manning Support Network. Cooper was also an editor and contributor to the hacktivist journal, "Hack this Zine." He has spoken at multiple black hat conferences about security issues ranging from IMSI Catchers to Malware attacks against journalists. In his spare time he enjoys playing music and playing with his kids.
Mukund Rathi is an attorney and Stanton Fellow at EFF, focusing on free speech litigation. He previously worked at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) on digital privacy rights in criminal cases and securing freedom for incarcerated people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mukund interned with EFF as a law student. He received his J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law and B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He likes climbing things and making pizza at home.
Before joining EFF, Josh served for six years as communications director, deputy chief of staff, and senior advisor to Congressman Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Judiciary, Intelligence, and Homeland Security committees and co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. He helped shape the message on a wide range of legislative priorities, including gun violence, student loan debt, and protecting our democracy, as well as through the Trump-Russia investigations, the COVID-19 pandemic, and two presidential impeachments, including the Congressman’s role as an Impeachment Manager. He also served as communications director for Rep. Swalwell’s presidential campaign in 2019. Earlier, Josh was a journalist for almost 24 years: five years covering City Hall for the Express-Times in Easton, PA, and then 19 years covering state and national politics for the Bay Area News Group, where his byline appeared in the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, and other Bay Area newspapers. While at the Bay Area News Group, he created the Political Blotter blog; was a lead reporter on the award-winning Chauncey Bailey Project, investigating the circumstances around the 2007 assassination of Bailey, a journalist and former colleague; and was a frequent guest on San Francisco public television station KQED’s public affairs programs. He’s a Queens, NY, native and an Eagle Scout who earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Katitza Rodriguez is EFF's Policy Director for Global Privacy. She concentrates on comparative policy of global privacy issues, with special emphasis on emerging technology and cross border data flows. Katitza's work also focuses on cybersecurity and government access to data at the intersection of international human rights law and standards. Katitza also supervises EFF's growing Latin American team. She was an advisor to the UN Internet Governance Forum (2009-2010). In 2018, CNET named Katitza one of the 20 most influential Latinos in technology in the United States. In 2014, she was also named one of "The heroes in the fight to save the Internet".
Before joining EFF, Katitza was director of the international privacy program at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington D.C., where amongst other things, she worked on The Privacy and Human Rights Report, an international survey of privacy laws and developments in more than 6o countries. Katitza is well known to many in global civil society and in international policy venues for her work at the U.N. Internet Governance Forum and her pivotal role in the creation and ongoing success of the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for which she served as the civil society liaison while at EPIC from 2008 to March 2010. Katitza holds a Bachelor in Law degree from the University of Lima, Peru. Katitza's twitter handle is @txitua.
As the Member Outreach Assistant, Christian connects with the many members of EFF. Whether it be at conferences or online through email or virtual events, Christian is always happy to chat about the work that EFF does and help members out with whatever they need. When not hanging out with supporters, he enjoys consuming all things Spider-Man, loving on his cats and dogs, and playing various video games.
Cristina credits her lifelong love of writing to growing up in the drizzly Pacific Northwest. Prior to joining the full-time fight for Internet freedom, Cristina lived and worked in Los Angeles, where she spent several years in the entertainment industry. Earning a critical studies degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts meant spending a lot of time staring at walls in the dark, which she still does occasionally. Requiescat in pace, Lil Bub.
Still ain't slept, watching law and order and eating handfuls of coco puffs out the box.
Artemis Schatzkin is a front-end web developer who has worked on many of EFF's websites, such as Who Has Your Face?, Cover Your Tracks, this very site you're on, and many more. She also developed EFF's virtual reality site, Spot the Surveillance.
She has a parallel life as a visual artist.
Christoph Schmon is EFF’s International Policy Director. He bridges EFF’s domestic priorities with our international policy strategy and helps to make sure that digital rights are respected and enforced beyond the United States borders. Christoph has deep expertise in EU policy-making and a special focus on international copyright law and online intermediary liability.
Prior to working for EFF, he led the Consumer Rights Team at the EU Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and was appointed member of several expert groups to the EU Commission in Brussels. Christoph has litigation experience and holds a Ph.D in law. He was a researcher at several universities and teaches and writes about consumer law, digital rights, and private international law.
Adam joined EFF in 2015. He advocates before courts and legislatures against surveillance and censorship. He has represented travelers subjected to warrantless smartphone searches by border officers, protesters against police violence and racism subjected to camera network surveillance, immigrant advocates opposed to their local sheriff sending license plate location data to ICE , dissidents seeking to post within government social media, and customers of phone companies that unlawfully sold location data. He has filed amicus briefs addressing the right to record on-duty police, face surveillance by corporations of consumers, and perpetual location-tracking of court-involved people. He advocates for privacy legislation to limit data surveillance by government and by corporations.
Previously, Adam worked at the ACLU of Illinois for 19 years, and clerked for Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He earned a J.D. from Howard University and a B.A. from Cornell University.
As the Deputy Managing Director of EFF, nash works to assure the organization's work is impactful, collaborative, and innovative.
David Sobel is Senior Counsel in Washington, DC, where he directs the FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project. David has handled numerous cases seeking the disclosure of government documents on privacy policy, including electronic surveillance, encryption controls and airline passenger screening initiatives. He served as co-counsel in the challenge to government secrecy concerning post-September 11 detentions and participated in the submission of a civil liberties amicus brief in the first-ever proceeding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. David is co-editor of the 2002 and 2004 editions of Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws. He is a recipient of EFF's Pioneer Award (2003) and the American Library Association's James Madison Award (2004), and has been inducted into the First Amendment Center's National FOIA Hall of Fame (2006). David was formerly counsel to the non-profit National Security Archive, and, in 1994, co-founded the Electronic Privacy Information Center, where he directed FOIA litigation and focused on government surveillance and collection of personal information. David is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Florida College of Law.
Mitch Stoltz is EFF’s Competition Director and a member of the legal team. Mitch leads EFF’s work on antitrust and competition, including litigation, legislative advocacy, coalition building, and policy analysis to address the effects of market concentration on user rights and innovation.
Mitch also litigates cases where copyright and trademark laws collide with free speech, defending the rights of software developers, security researchers, and nonprofit organizations to advance their work with technology. His recent cases and projects have covered Internet TV and radio, game development, free and open source software licensing, government transparency, and domain names.
Before joining EFF, Mitch was an associate at Constantine Cannon LLP in Washington DC. Long ago, in an Internet far far away, Mitch was a security engineer at Netscape Communications, where he worked to secure Web browsers against malware. Mitch has a JD from Boston University School of Law and a BA in Public Policy Analysis and Computer Science from Pomona College.
Lee Tien is a Senior Staff Attorney and the Adams Chair for Internet Rights at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in free speech law, including intersections with intellectual property law and privacy law. Before joining EFF, Lee was a sole practitioner specializing in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. Mr. Tien has published articles on children's sexuality and information technology, anonymity, surveillance, and the First Amendment status of publishing computer software. Lee received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford University, where he was very active in journalism at the Stanford Daily. After working as a news reporter at the Tacoma News Tribune for a year, Lee went to law school at Boalt Hall, University of California at Berkeley. Lee also did graduate work in the Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC-Berkeley.
Katharine is the Associate Director of Policy and Activism at EFF, where she coordinates EFF's federal activism. Her areas of expertise are competition, broadband access, intellectual property, net neutrality, fair use, free speech online, and intermediary liability. Before joining EFF, Katharine spent many years as a writer and editor at the science fiction and science website io9. She has had her work appear in many other publications, including io9's sister publications Deadspin, Gizmodo, and Jesebel. Katharine got a BA in history at Columbia University and a JD at USC Gould School of Law, doing work with the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic. It was Katharine’s experience in media that led to her going to law school with an eye to learning more about fair use and copyright law.
Hayley Tsukayama is Senior Legislative Activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on state legislation. Prior to joining EFF, she spent nearly eight years as a consumer technology reporter at The Washington Post writing stories on the industry's largest companies.
Hayley, who is CIPP/US certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, has an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri and a BA in history from Vassar College.
Alberto Villaluna is the Head of Resource Development at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, bringing to the role more than 20 years of experience establishing successful relationships with individual donors, institutional and corporate supporters and increasing stakeholder engagement with mission-driven organizations. In his role at EFF, he provides leadership for all philanthropic, revenue-creation, and partnership strategies to advance EFF’s mission and priorities. As a member of EFF’s Executive Team, he works with EFF’s Executive Director and organizational leadership to create and implement fund development plans that beneficially advance EFF’s goals and strategic priorities.
Lee leads the human resources effort for EFF. Prior to joining EFF, he practiced employment law and led the human resources department for several organizations. Lee received his J. D. from Case Western Reserve University and his B.A. and M.S. degrees from Tulane University. He became interested in online privacy issues during law school. After hours, he can be found exploring beautiful northern California and searching for thin crust pizza!
Kit is a senior staff attorney at EFF, working on free speech, net neutrality, copyright, coders' rights, and other issues that relate to freedom of expression and access to knowledge. She has worked for years to support the rights of political protesters, journalists, remix artists, and technologists to agitate for social change and to express themselves through their stories and ideas. Prior to joining EFF, Kit led the civil liberties and patent practice areas at the Cyberlaw Clinic, part of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and previously Kit worked at the law firm of Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, litigating patent, trademark, and copyright cases in courts across the country.
Kit holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.S. in neuroscience from MIT, where she studied brain-computer interfaces and designed cyborgs and artificial bacteria.
Brad Warren is a Senior Software Architect at EFF working primarily on Certbot, a tool for obtaining certificates and automatically configuring SSL/TLS. As one of the core developers of the project, Brad is interested in making security products more usable as we work towards a more private, secure, and encrypted web.
Carlos coordinates the translations of EFF's material into various languages, both from a team of translators and volunteers, He also translates the bulk of EFF's content into Spanish. In Lima, he has worked producing content for coupon companies, producing gastronomic photography, managing bookstore chains and publishing houses and, at the same time, being a free software activist. For some years now, he has run El Langoy, one of the oldest podcasts in Peru.
Christopher is a technologist and happy mutant. He volunteers at Bound Together Bookstore and does community organizing & environmental justice work in Bayview-Hunters Point.
George Koichi Wong is a San Francisco native who grew up speaking Japanese, studied International Relations and Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, and received a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University. His educational interests varied from equity in public education to nuclear disarmament, before finally settling at international human rights law.
He spent a summer as an intern at the Pat Finucane Centre in Northern Ireland, which had a great influence on his understanding of the impact of armed conflict on ordinary people. He also had the privilege of participating in a study trip to Malta, where he facilitated a discussion with law students at the University of Malta on the intersection of migration and international human rights law. For his master’s thesis, he produced a report for ICITAP on Ukraine’s maritime border security in the Black Sea, based on research and interviews with US and Ukrainian officials. His previous work experience includes internships at the World Faiths Development Dialogue, the Wilson Center, and the National Immigration Forum. His passion and career goals are to realize a world where human rights are truly universal. George is fluent in Japanese and English, and studied Russian in university.
As a San Francisco native, pre-COVID, his favorite activities were visiting new cafes, exploring urban spaces that are car-free and car-optional, and ranting about land-use and zoning restrictions in the US. Mid-COVID, he is most often seen working on his espresso game, cooking his favorite restaurant meals at home, and reading about modern monetary theory.
Peter builds and maintains websites for EFF. After studying math at UC Santa Cruz he got started programming electronics and then for the web.
leez, a second-person narrative. You're quite fond of freely-modifiable and redistributable things. While compiling your college thesis on the free and open-source software movements, you rebuilt their course-management servers with free and open-source software. You are a social justice advocate that is often found evangelizing worker-run factories or encryption. Lately you also find pleasure in the ancient art of seafaring, the modern art of flash mobs, phaselocking bullymongs, and trying to make music with that electronic keyboard.
Jillian C. York is EFF's Director for International Freedom of Expression and is based in Berlin, Germany. Her work examines state and corporate censorship and its impact on culture and human rights, with a focus on historically marginalized communities. At EFF, she leads the platform censorship working group, and also works on European policy, the impact of sanctions on the use of technology, and occasionally, digital security. Jillian is the author of Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism (Verso, 2021) and has written for Vice, Buzzfeed, the Guardian, and the New York Times, among others. She teaches at the College of Europe Natolin in Warsaw. She is also a regular speaker at global events.
Prior to joining EFF, Jillian worked at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, where she coordinated the work of the OpenNet Initiative and contributed to other projects including Herdict and research into DDoS attacks. She has also worked in fundraising and grant writing, as an EFL teacher, and as a travel writer.
Jillian is a fellow at the Centre for Internet & Human Rights in Berlin and a founding member of the Deep Lab collective. She currently serves on the IFEX Council, the Open Tech Fund Advisory Council, and on the advisory board of SMEX.
Jillian holds a BA in Sociology from Binghamton University, where—like a surprisingly large number of individuals in her field—she also studied theatre. Prior to the pandemic, she could often be found flying the friendly skies, but today, is more likely to be found on Zoom or Twitter.
Syd builds and maintains websites for EFF. They graduated from Yale, where they studied statistics, helped manage a student developer program, and organized a political discussion/activist group. They love Ruby, data privacy, and unsolved mysteries.
Hannah is a staff attorney who focuses on criminal justice and privacy issues, and is part of the Coders’ Rights Project. Prior to joining EFF, she represented criminal defendants on appeal in state and federal courts in New York, Illinois, and Missouri, and also worked at the human rights NGO, Human Rights in China. While pursuing her law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Hannah represented indigent defendants and refugee applicants in Durban, South Africa, and studied international law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She also competed in, and remains involved with, the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition, including as a problem author in 2019. In college, Hannah studied Computer Science and Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In her spare time, she likes to climb things.
Mackey is EFF's resident Bernese Mountain Dog. He specializes in getting treats from interns, barking at Board members and peeing in front of visiting movie stars. He always encrypts his bones to keep them safe from the NSA.
