SAN FRANCISCO – Electronic Frontier Foundation Executive Director Cindy Cohn will step down by mid-2026 after more than 25 years with the organization and a decade as its top officer leading the fight for digital freedoms.
EFF – defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation since 1990 – is launching a search for Cohn’s successor.
“It’s been the honor of my life to help EFF grow and become the strong, effective organization it is today, but it’s time to make space for new leadership. I also want to get back into the fight for civil liberties more directly than I can as the executive director of a thriving 125-person organization,” Cohn said. “I’m incredibly proud of all that we’ve built and accomplished. One of our former interns once called EFF the joyful warriors for internet freedom and I have always loved that characterization.”
“I know EFF’s lawyers, activists and technologists will continue standing up for freedom, justice and innovation whether we’re fighting trolls, bullies, corporate oligarchs, clueless legislators or outright dictators,” she added.
"Cindy Cohn has been a relentless advocate for the simple proposition that regular people have a fundamental right to privacy online,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR. “Her work – defending encryption, opposing warrantless NSA surveillance, and suing major corporations for violating customer privacy – has consistently put her on the side of users and individuals and against powerful entrenched interests. Cindy's steady leadership at EFF will be missed by everyone who believes the First and Fourth Amendments are just as necessary today as they were more than 200 years ago."
Cohn, 61, 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. She served as EFF’s Legal Director as well as its General Counsel from 2000 through 2015, and she has served as Executive Director since then. She also has co-hosted EFF’s award-winning “How to Fix the Internet” podcast, which is about to conclude its sixth season. Her upcoming professional memoir covering her time at EFF, Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance, will be published in spring 2026 by MIT Press.
Cohn was named to TheNonProfitTimes 2020 Power & Influence TOP 50. In 2018, Forbes included her as one of America's Top 50 Women in Tech. The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2013, noting: "[I]f Big Brother is watching, he better look out for Cindy Cohn." That publication also named her 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 Cohn its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award and in 2012 the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded her its James Madison Freedom of Information Award.
Cohn said she made the decision to step down more than a year ago, and later informed EFF’s Board of Directors and executive staff. The Board of Directors has assembled a search committee, which in turn has engaged leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct a search for EFF’s new executive director. Inquiries about the search can be directed to EFF@russellreynolds.com.
The search committee hopes to hire someone next spring, with Cohn planning to remain at EFF for a transition period through early summer.
“Simply put, Cindy Cohn is an EFF institution,” said Gigi Sohn, chair of EFF’s Board of Directors. “Under her leadership, the organization has grown tremendously, cementing its role as the premier defender of digital privacy, free speech and innovation in the U.S., and perhaps the world. The EFF Board thanks Cindy for her many years of service to EFF, first as Legal Director and for the past 10 years as Executive Director, as well as her willingness to help the organization through this leadership transition. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors, which undoubtedly will be equally as, if not more, successful.”
“Cindy has been a huge part of EFF’s 35-year history and growth, and the organization simply wouldn’t be where it is today - at the forefront of defending civil liberties in the digital world - without her,” said EFF co-founder Mitch Kapor. “Her strong, compassionate leadership has set a clear and impactful road map for EFF’s work for years to come.”
“Cindy Cohn is a visionary lawyer and leader who has helped make EFF the world’s foremost digital rights organization,” said American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Ben Wizner. “She has also been a dear friend and mentor to so many of us, leading with her warmth and humor as much as her brilliance. I’m excited to see her next act and confident she’ll find new strategies for protecting our rights and liberties.”
“Cindy is a force in the digital rights community,” said Center for Democracy & Technology President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens. “Her visionary leadership has pushed the field forward, championing the rights of individual users and innovators in a fast-changing digital world. Cindy is a tireless advocate for user privacy, free expression, and ensuring technology serves the public good. Her legacy at EFF stands not just in the policy battles and complex cases she’s won, but in the foundation she has built for the next generation of digital rights defenders.”
For more about Cindy Cohn, with hi-res photo: https://www.eff.org/about/staff/cindy-cohn
