Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

EFF is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Guest Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director.

THEME:
The Past & Future of Digital Liberties

BIG IDEA:
We don't have to settle. Some of our basic digital protections were once in jeopardy, like having access to encryption or preventing the authorities from looking through our phones during searches. In both those examples, EFF fought hard for our protections. There are plenty of threats to digital liberties worth fighting for today, like behavioral advertising, surveillance capitalism, platform-centrism. EFF's work over the last 30 years proves that engaged consumers have the power to make the internet a more open and thriving place.

FAVORITE QUOTE:
"When you go to buy a car, they don’t just hand you a car and send you to a website to buy your brakes; you get a car, it comes with brakes, and those work to protect you. Our tools need to be the same way. It shouldn’t be the case that they give you a ridiculously privacy-invasive default and you have to figure out your way through the settings to protect yourself. That’s not right, and we can change that."

FUN FACTS:

• EFF was founded in 1990 and pre-dates the world-wide-web!
• EFF has 3 artists on staff and ~15 technologists. Their artwork can be found all over on EFF's Deeplinks Blog

MORE:

• Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech - The interoperability piece mentioned in the interview
• The Foilies 2021
• If you liked this episode, checkout Future Ethics and  Siempo

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