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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 and holds a Masters degree in Economic Law from the University of São Paulo Law School, where she is currently a PhD candidate in Human Rights.
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).
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.
Josh is the Receptionist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
He majored in Media Studies at the University of San Francisco and has previously worked in restaurants and the virtual reality industry. Josh is happy to support the hardworking teams at EFF by keeping them comfortable, caffeinated, and well supplied so they can focus their energy on fighting the creeping dystopia that threatens the very fabric of our society.
In his spare time Josh likes to hang around the Richmond District with his wife Desirée and his two cats Hero and Starlee. He also enjoys producing unlistenable electronic music and drinking way too many iced lattes.
Bill Budington is a long-time activist, cryptography enthusiast, and a Senior Staff Technologist on EFF's Tech Projects 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), 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.
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 a good crossword puzzle.
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.
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's work at EFF includes illustration, web and interface design, and user research.
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 Art 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, Kazakhstan. When she is not collecting new and exotic malware, she practices aerial circus arts and learning new languages.
Gennie directs the activism team at EFF. Her research and advocacy focus on consumer privacy and security, with an emphasis on third-party tracking, platform policy, secure messaging, and student privacy. She also works on 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 and led a successful initiative for a university open access policy. Her previous research includes work on public internet access in Laos, technology education in Myanmar, zero-rating in Ghana, and state censorship in Thailand.
Naomi is an attorney specializing in free speech litigation. Prior to joining EFF, she worked on issues of free speech, privacy, and government transparency at the ACLU. Naomi graduated from Harvard Law School and Princeton University, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable David J. Barron of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the Honorable Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
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 an Operations Engineer attempting to tame the EFF's menagerie of servers. He's passionate about democratizing computer security and fighting for a more just application of technology in society. When he's not doing that, though, he's all about tabletop gaming, running, and learning cool new stuff.
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 privacy 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 a frequent contributor to the Freedom of Information-centered outlet Muckrock and his bylines have also appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, and Motherboard. Matthew is a visiting scholar in the department of history at UC-Berkeley 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 now working as an analyst and senior media relations specialist at EFF 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 Pres 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 to hold social media platforms accountable for bad content moderation practices, expose how Amazon Ring gave free products to law enforcement, and improve human rights safeguards in the Council of Europe's proposed international cybersecurity agreement. She is a contributing writer for feminism website Seismic Sisters. 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 issues on digital rights and consumer technology. Her latest research focuses on digital rights and our digital identities in the age of COVID-19. Deeply passionate about tech equity for all, she has been aiding activists and educators with their tech needs for 10 years.
Past talks include speaking about user privacy, cloud security, open technology standards, and surveillance. She has worked in web development and application security for 8 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).
Elliot is a senior activist at EFF. He advocates for free speech and the right to innovate online, with particular emphases on patents, copyright, open access, and Section 230.
Before coming to EFF, Elliot served as director of communications at Creative Commons, an organization that helps creators share their works with the public via open copyright licenses. Before that, he worked as a writer and curator for TechSoup, a technology resource for the nonprofit community. He has degrees from the University of South Dakota and the California College of the Arts.
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 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.
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 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 Know Your Rights trainer. 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 the Visiting Reynolds Professor of Media Technology.
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.
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)
Alex is a Staff Attorney on EFF’s intellectual property team, focusing on legal issues that affect innovation and creativity of all kinds. Before joining EFF, Alex practiced complex commercial litigation at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and Durie Tangri LLP in San Francisco, where she handled patent, copyright, trademark, contract, and antitrust matters for a wide range of clients in state and federal courts across the country. After graduating from Stanford Law School, Alex developed a a particular passion for patent law while clerking for the Honorable Timothy B. Dyk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Before law school, Alex worked with independent recording artists at Rough Trade America and Alan McGee Management.
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 encryption, platform liability, patents, copyright, 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. In 2014, Opsahl was elected to the USENIX Board of Directors.
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.
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.
Nicole supports EFF's fundraising efforts and specializes in donor correspondence and outreach. She also previously planned and executed annual events for EFF, including the Pioneer Awards and Cyberlaw Trivia. Before joining EFF's Development Team, she had over a decade of nonprofit experience working with individual and institutional donors, primarily at the Tides Foundation. She managed a wide range of social justice-focused philanthropic efforts by running grantmaking programs and offering customized programmatic services. She has also supported fiscally sponsored projects at both the Tides Center and the San Francisco Parks Trust. In her spare time, she enjoys frolicking with baby goats and making pickles.
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.
Rainey Reitman serves as the Chief Program Officer for EFF. She focuses on organizational development, leadership development, internal systems, and ensuring that all of EFF's programmatic teams develop and achieve impactful strategies.
Reitman is a board member and co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit organization that defends and supports unique, independent, nonprofit journalistic institutions. She, along with co-founders Daniel Ellsberg, Trevor Timm, and J.P. Barlow, received the 2013 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Journalism.
Reitman was a co-founder and steering committee member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, a network of individuals and organizations that advocated for the release of accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Private Chelsea Manning. Previously, Reitman served on the board of directors for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a nonprofit whose mission is to organize and support an effective, national grassroots movement to restore civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
From 2010-2018, Reitman served as the Activism Director for EFF. Prior to joining EFF, Reitman served as Director of Communications for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit advocacy and education organization promoting consumer privacy. She earned her BA from Bard College in Multidisciplinary Studies: Creative Writing, Russian & Gender Studies.
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 Schwartz joined EFF as a Senior Staff Attorney in 2015. He advocates before courts and legislatures against surveillance and censorship. He has represented travelers subjected to warrantless smartphone searches by border officers, dissidents seeking to speak in 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, perpetual location-tracking of court-involved people, face surveillance by corporations of consumers, and overbroad laws against so-called "cyber stalking." Through FOIA enforcement litigation, he helped expose new information about AT&T's "Hemisphere" phone snooping program. He has worked to pass bills to to protect consumer data privacy, and to stop high-tech surveillance of immigrants.
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.
nash leads EFF's grassroots, student, and community organizing efforts. As the Director of EFF's Organizing team, nash works to support member organizations of the Electronic Frontier Alliance in educating their neighbors on digital-privacy best practices, and advocating for privacy and innovation protecting policy and legislation.
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 a Senior Staff Attorney at EFF. Mitch focuses on copyright, trademark, antitrust, telecommunications, and free speech. He has worked for years to fight the use of copyright as a tool for censorship, and to keep the Internet open for creativity and innovation from far and wide. His recent projects include formulating new approaches to antitrust and competition policy in Internet industries, litigation on the copyright status of mandatory safety codes, and cases on Internet TV and radio. Mitch also counsels clients on the use of open licenses for software and media.
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 and coordinated the security research efforts of hackers on three continents. 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, focusing on 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, while also contributing occasionally to io9’s sister publications Deadspin, Jezebel, and Gizmodo. 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. She’s excited to be melding both her legal and writing background together at the EFF.
Hayley Tsukayama is a legislative activist for 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. She was a 2010 recipient of the White House Correspondents' Association scholarship.
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 including Huckleberry Youth Programs. 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.
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 for electronics and then the web.
Prior to EFF he worked with a consultant group specializing in Ruby application performance. He also helps maintain a hosting community for small label do-it-yourself musicians, and tries to keep it free from nutraceutical spam.
He likes stargazing, reading sci-fi and learning traditional tunes on his fiddle.
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 an emphasis on 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 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.