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Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance
A personal chronicle of three key legal privacy battles that have defined the digital age and shaped the internet as we know it.
From a seasoned leader in the field of digital privacy rights.
Throughout her career, Cindy Cohn has been driven by a fundamental Can we still have private conversations if we live our lives online? Privacy’s Defender chronicles her thirty-year battle to protect our right to digital privacy and shows just how central this right is to all our other rights, including our ability to organize and make change in the world.
Shattering the hypermasculine myth that our digital reality was solely the work of a handful of charismatic tech founders, the author weaves her own personal story with the history of Crypto Wars, FBI gag orders, and the post-9/11 surveillance state. She describes how she became a seasoned leader in the early digital rights movement, as well as how this work serendipitously helped her discover her birth parents and find her life partner. Along the way, she also details the development of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which she grew from a ragtag group of lawyers and hackers into one of the most powerful digital rights organizations in the world.
Part memoir and part legal history for the general listener, the book is a compelling testament to just how hard-won the privacy rights we now enjoy as tech users are, but also how crucial these rights are in our efforts to combat authoritarianism, grow democracy, and strengthen other human rights.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
From a seasoned leader in the field of digital privacy rights.
Throughout her career, Cindy Cohn has been driven by a fundamental Can we still have private conversations if we live our lives online? Privacy’s Defender chronicles her thirty-year battle to protect our right to digital privacy and shows just how central this right is to all our other rights, including our ability to organize and make change in the world.
Shattering the hypermasculine myth that our digital reality was solely the work of a handful of charismatic tech founders, the author weaves her own personal story with the history of Crypto Wars, FBI gag orders, and the post-9/11 surveillance state. She describes how she became a seasoned leader in the early digital rights movement, as well as how this work serendipitously helped her discover her birth parents and find her life partner. Along the way, she also details the development of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which she grew from a ragtag group of lawyers and hackers into one of the most powerful digital rights organizations in the world.
Part memoir and part legal history for the general listener, the book is a compelling testament to just how hard-won the privacy rights we now enjoy as tech users are, but also how crucial these rights are in our efforts to combat authoritarianism, grow democracy, and strengthen other human rights.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Audible Audio
Published March 10, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 19, 2026
Another book I think all lawyers and law students should read
April 8, 2026
New role model alert. Cindy Cohn has spent her career fighting to make sure that when you go online, your rights go with you.
I regularly find myself hanging out with cryptographers, as one does, and this book has led to spectacular conversations. If you want to understand why EFF is so,
so important, talk to a cryptographer.
In her talk about the book, Cohn said she wanted to tell some stories about the internet’s origins that weren’t just big-man stories about company founders. Walter Isaacson described trying to do something similar in writing the innovators: he realized, when describing his book about the internet’s origins to his daughter, that everyone in it was a man. So he added Ada Lovelace.
This book sets the bar higher for whose story this is, and who gets to tell it. I’m so glad this book exists, and I look forward to rereading it regularly.
I regularly find myself hanging out with cryptographers, as one does, and this book has led to spectacular conversations. If you want to understand why EFF is so,
so important, talk to a cryptographer.
In her talk about the book, Cohn said she wanted to tell some stories about the internet’s origins that weren’t just big-man stories about company founders. Walter Isaacson described trying to do something similar in writing the innovators: he realized, when describing his book about the internet’s origins to his daughter, that everyone in it was a man. So he added Ada Lovelace.
This book sets the bar higher for whose story this is, and who gets to tell it. I’m so glad this book exists, and I look forward to rereading it regularly.
May 12, 2026
This is a memorable and relevant history of privacy and 1st amendment law in the US through the eyes of a litigator. The battles she fought made her seem like the most badass lawyer ever. You know the writing is a success when the author makes patiently navigating bureaucracy look like a cool career path.
It got me thinking about the nature of advocacy in the face of adversity. Like when we have a vision of a "more perfect union" but see a whole bunch of ops blocking the way there. The only journey that leads to the desired destination is one of slow plodding steps. The wins individually never seem to be enough as the accompanying losses always look bigger. I aspire to have half that level of conviction to the impact goals in my career.
But also, this memoir painted the picture of a government that operates differently than what I remember being taught. The intelligence community can be thought of as a de facto fourth branch of government that isn't elected and has fewer checks on power than the others. It fights court cases with preferential access to what judges hear. It lobbies Congress to pass laws for retroactive immunity always in the name of national security. It gets presidents to backpedal campaign promises after they attain office. Through successive administrations their mode of operation has largely remained unchanged. I can't help but feel this creates a conflict of interest with effective implementation of antitrust law. Learning about this is probably how people fall down the deep state conspiracy rabbit hole.
Lots to mull over with this book. It has a criminally low review count on this app.
It got me thinking about the nature of advocacy in the face of adversity. Like when we have a vision of a "more perfect union" but see a whole bunch of ops blocking the way there. The only journey that leads to the desired destination is one of slow plodding steps. The wins individually never seem to be enough as the accompanying losses always look bigger. I aspire to have half that level of conviction to the impact goals in my career.
But also, this memoir painted the picture of a government that operates differently than what I remember being taught. The intelligence community can be thought of as a de facto fourth branch of government that isn't elected and has fewer checks on power than the others. It fights court cases with preferential access to what judges hear. It lobbies Congress to pass laws for retroactive immunity always in the name of national security. It gets presidents to backpedal campaign promises after they attain office. Through successive administrations their mode of operation has largely remained unchanged. I can't help but feel this creates a conflict of interest with effective implementation of antitrust law. Learning about this is probably how people fall down the deep state conspiracy rabbit hole.
Lots to mull over with this book. It has a criminally low review count on this app.
May 24, 2026
Guaranteed to raise your blood pressure.
April 27, 2026
Stærk og spændende erindringsbog fra en af pionererne i Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Fra de helt tidlige dage med pgp-kryptering til Snowden og NSA. Cindy Cohn forklarer hvordan civile søgsmål bruges strategisk til at forsvare dine og mine rettigheder.
Fra de helt tidlige dage med pgp-kryptering til Snowden og NSA. Cindy Cohn forklarer hvordan civile søgsmål bruges strategisk til at forsvare dine og mine rettigheder.
March 19, 2026
Cindy Cohn’s “Privacy’s Defender” is both an engaging, passionate retelling of some of the biggest legal battles for our digital privacy over the past 30 years as well as a call to action, recruiting a new generation of lawyers, technologists, and activists to take up the fight. Cohn imbues her stories with the “happy warrior” ethos of the Electronic Frontier Foundation that she has been part of for 26 years and led for 10, making complex legal and technical ideas easily accessible to lay readers. She clearly presents why these battles affect everyone who uses technology - which we all do - while interweaving the policy content with her own fascinating life story. A great read from start to finish.
March 20, 2026
Five stars. I have no legal background, just an interest in privacy and surveillance, and Cindy made every case and legal concept completely followable. It feels like she’s talking with you, not at you. The three-story structure keeps the pacing tight without losing you in the weeds. By story three, you’ll be glad someone like Cindy exists doing this work. Highly recommend.
May 28, 2026
The other day, I was talking to a friend in a bar, and we casually mentioned that we forget why Sun Microsystems went out of business. The next day, a notification popped up on my phone: "Why Sun Microsystems Failed," along with the story of their failure. We all have these things happen, time and time again, far too often to be coincidence. The things we say, read, and type are all recorded, monitored, used by both the private and public sectors. In defiance of the Constitution, laws, privacy.
We all have things to hide. Those who say "I have nothing to hide" are morons. Law-abiding citizens have things to hide. We should insist on and fight for privacy. Cohn tells fascinating tales about her fight for all of us through the EFF and other efforts. We cannot trust a government, especially one that is not held accountable, to seek our common good. As we see, time and time again, that's not what they do.
I highly recommend this book.
We all have things to hide. Those who say "I have nothing to hide" are morons. Law-abiding citizens have things to hide. We should insist on and fight for privacy. Cohn tells fascinating tales about her fight for all of us through the EFF and other efforts. We cannot trust a government, especially one that is not held accountable, to seek our common good. As we see, time and time again, that's not what they do.
I highly recommend this book.
April 22, 2026
Interesting and imformative read, though not quite as gripping as expected (guess I was hoping for a real life legal thriller, important though the actual plot is). But I will join the EFF.
And I have to say, the USA has chosen a very odd framework for running their country, with lawyers arguing legal technicalities and the semantics of a 250 year old document to give scope to badly written laws. Bizarre.
And I have to say, the USA has chosen a very odd framework for running their country, with lawyers arguing legal technicalities and the semantics of a 250 year old document to give scope to badly written laws. Bizarre.
April 13, 2026
Cohn and the EFF have won some great cases including Dan Bernstein's suit that removed encryption code from the un-exportable munitions list. The cases against dragnet internet surveillance improved things a little, but disappointingly the "it's a national security issue" bludgeon is mostly still in place (and being expanded under Trump).
May 19, 2026
Such a fan of Cindy Cohn and EFF. Really enjoyed reading some of the litigation history of digital surveillance work that Cindy and EFF has done over the years. So much to do, but also a wonderful reminder that small steps and wins can also make a difference. Even if you’re not into tech issues or law generally, would definitely recommend (she explains them really well).
March 25, 2026
I picked this one up after the reinvigorated debate on domestic mass surveillance from the Pentagon’s negotiations with Anthropic. Everyone should read this book.
April 14, 2026
ehhhh it was fine. she's fighting the good fight, but perhaps i just find legal proceedings kinda boring.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews