Board member, Data & Society; Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Cindy Cohn

Cindy Cohn is a member of the board of the directors at Data & Society and the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). From 2000–2015 she served as EFF’s legal director as well as its general counsel. 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.

Cohn has been named to The Nonprofit Times 2020 Power and Influence Top 50 list, honoring 2020’s movers and shakers. In 2018, Forbes included her on its list of America’s Top 50 Women in Tech. The National Law Journal named 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 2010 the Intellectual Property Law 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 honored her with the James Madison Freedom of Information Award.