EFF’s Cindy Cohn Steps Down as Digital Rights Fights Get Real

Back in 2022, Cindy Cohn started writing her memoir, Privacy’s Defender. She worried people would see her as an “old fuddy duddy” still yelling about government spying online. That feels like a lifetime ago.

Cohn has been with the Electronic Frontier Foundation since the early days—first as one of its first litigators, then as executive director. She watched government surveillance become the defining civil rights issue of the early internet era in the 1990s. For a while, it seemed like the conversation had shifted. Everyone was focused on Big Tech harms, data brokers, and algorithmic bias. Government abuse felt like yesterday’s problem.

Then Trump’s second term started.

ICE operations ramped up fast, and they leaned hard on technology. Flock cameras, license plate readers, social media surveillance—all of it became part of the mass deportation machinery. Suddenly, online privacy wasn’t an abstract concern. Communities across the political spectrum started tearing down Flock cameras. People who never thought twice about surveillance were suddenly organizing against it.

The Department of Homeland Security tried to unmask ICE critics on social media. They mostly failed, but the attempt alone was alarming. EFF filed lawsuits to protect people’s right to track ICE activity and share information anonymously. It’s the kind of fight Cohn and her team have been preparing for since the 90s, even if the specific targets have changed.

Now Cohn is stepping down. The organization is looking for new leadership at a moment when digital rights battles are more urgent and more visible than they’ve been in years. I’ve seen this pattern before—nonprofits often change leaders during periods of intense activity, and it can go either way. A new director might bring fresh energy, or they might struggle to maintain momentum. EFF has institutional memory and a strong legal team, so I’m cautiously optimistic.

What I find interesting is how the political landscape has shifted. For years, privacy advocates struggled to get people to care about government surveillance. The Snowden revelations in 2013 were a blip, but public attention drifted back to Facebook and Google. Now, ICE raids and Flock cameras are making the threat tangible in a way that theoretical warrantless wiretapping never did. People see a camera on a pole and realize it’s not just for finding stolen cars—it’s for finding their neighbors.

Cohn’s departure marks the end of an era, but the fights she helped shape are far from over. The next EFF leader will inherit an organization that’s battle-tested and facing a government that’s more aggressive than ever. I’ll be watching to see who takes the job and what direction they push.