In my first weeks as Executive Director of EFF, I’ve been reminded every day how consequential this moment is in determining what kind of future we will have.
We are on the edge. What each one of us steps up to do – with our expertise, energy, and resources – will determine whether our future is one of openness, security, and fundamental rights, or one controlled through fear, surveillance, and centralized power.
I am proud to take the torch and help lead our EFF community forward at this pivotal time in history. And we need you in the fight.
Right now, we are celebrating an important U.S. Supreme Court win in Chatrie v. United States that reaffirmed our right to privacy in our location data and will help curb one flank of supercharged government surveillance. But in another case, the Court overturned 90 years of precedent limiting executive power and rubber-stamped the President’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The U.S. government also issued a chilling directive to Anthropic to prohibit the company from allowing foreign nationals to access its newest technology – then rescinded it two weeks later. And legislation limiting access to social media is advancing in many places around the world.
Each headline is different, but they tell one story: Many of the threats that once seemed hypothetical are now reality, and EFF’s work to ensure technology supports rights, justice, freedom, and innovation for all people has never been more critical. Governments and large corporations possess surveillance capabilities that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Ever greater concentrations of power are shaping speech, creativity, markets, and democratic institutions. Governments are increasingly seeking to control the internet and people’s ability to access information and communicate freely. Our community’s work is fundamental to the future of our countries, our livelihoods, and literally our lives.
I am also mindful that the United States marked its 250th anniversary last week and that this week is EFF’s 36th birthday. Anniversaries, like leadership changes, naturally invite reflection on where we are in history and challenge us to look ahead. What does it mean for a democracy, founded in an analog age, to survive in the digital world?
It is also an opportunity to ask how our EFF community can be even stronger, so we can help bring more people into the work of making sure technology serves everyone.
I began my career in public-interest work in Silicon Valley at the height of the 1990s dotcom boom, working at some of the earliest nonprofit “digital divide” programs that provided community access to computers and the internet, because I have always believed in the power of technology to create greater opportunity for all, not just profit for a few. I have dedicated my career to public interest technology because I am driven to see technology’s promise realized in my lifetime, and there is no other organization in the world that can do more to meet this moment and build a future where technology truly works for people than EFF.
These are perilous times. It is also a moment of extraordinary possibility. The future of AI has not been written and we can work together to get it right. We can make sure our laws reflect the needs of the modern digital age. We can build the technologies that empower rather than marginalize communities.
For me, the work starts with recognizing that digital rights are not a siloed policy issue. We must fight and win on the digital terrain to organize, speak freely, access healthcare, find work, receive an education, and participate fully in democracy. We can and must reject a false choice between innovation and civil liberties, and build power across movements to make sure technology truly works for people.
This challenge is what EFF was purpose-built to tackle. When EFF was founded in 1990, the World Wide Web did not yet exist, cell phones were the size of bricks, and EFF’s founders understood something remarkably prescient: Technology and civil liberties would become inseparable.
Now we all live digital lives, and the important digital rights issues that EFF has worked on since 1990 have become kitchen-table issues all around the world. EFF’s founders understood that how technology is built, developed, used, and controlled deeply intersects with rights, justice, freedom, and democracy.
EFF’s unique combination of world-class lawyers, activists, and public interest technologists pursue change simultaneously in the courts, legislatures, companies, and our communities, and pierce through false choices. This integrated, intersectional approach, grounded in deep legal, policy, and technical expertise, is a linchpin in fighting and winning against some of the most powerful forces in the world – both governments and trillion-dollar companies.
We defend people against unlawful government data collection and challenge license plate and face surveillance in our communities. We shape AI law and policy to protect civil liberties and support creativity and innovation. We push companies to strengthen encryption, fight to ensure you have the right to own what you buy, and build public interest technologies like Privacy Badger and Certbot that millions of people rely on every day.
This work matters because it all answers the same question: Will technology empower or control us?
As I look ahead, there are major battles on the horizon. We must:
- Challenge increasingly sophisticated government and corporate surveillance systems that endanger our rights, democracy, safety and security
- Preserve strong encryption and online anonymity
- Ensure AI is developed and used in ways that respect fundamental rights and works for those who build it, use it, and are affected by it
- Confront the concentrations of power that limit access to new creativity and defend the rights of developers to build and innovate
To meet these challenges, we must not only utilize the powerful levers of successful litigation, smart policy interventions, and effective public interest technology tools. We must also build a broader movement that recognizes that fights on the digital terrain are integral to all our fights for rights and justice – from civil rights and immigrants’ rights to reproductive rights, disability rights, LGBTQ+ rights, workers' rights, economic justice, and more. Together, our EFF community can help broaden the public conversation about technology's role in society and continue building the collective power necessary to shape the future rather than react to it.
I have hit the ground running, working with EFF’s exceptional staff and Board and starting to meet many of you in the broader EFF community. Every conversation has reinforced my confidence that our community is uniquely prepared for the work ahead. I’m looking forward to meeting more of you at my first EFFecting Change livestream on August 12 with Cory Doctorow, and hope this conversation is just the beginning of finding new ways to work together. Please stay tuned for additional in-person events with me around the country this fall.
As we celebrate EFF's birthday, I am energized by all the opportunities ahead for us to build on EFF’s strong foundation and make it even mightier. And we need you and others in the fight. Please renew your membership, become a recurring monthly supporter, and introduce someone new to EFF by snagging them a gift membership.
Everything we accomplish—every lawsuit, every policy victory, every public interest technology tool, every campaign—is possible because people like you are committed to ensuring technology strengthens freedom, privacy, creativity, and opportunity for everyone.
The future we want and need will be built by people and movements working together to ensure technology empowers rather than oppresses.
Let’s build that future together.
Facts Only
*Chatrie v. United States* reaffirmed the right to privacy in location data and curbed government surveillance.
The Supreme Court overturned 90 years of precedent limiting executive power and endorsed the President’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.
The U.S. government issued a chilling directive to Anthropic prohibiting foreign nationals from accessing its newest technology, which was later rescinded two weeks later.
Legislation limiting access to social media is advancing in many parts of the world.
EFF was founded in 1990.
The speaker began a career in public-interest work in Silicon Valley during the 1990s dotcom boom, working on "digital divide" programs providing community internet access.
EFF’s work involves defending against unlawful government data collection and challenging surveillance of license plates and faces.
EFF shapes AI law and policy to protect civil liberties and innovation.
EFF pushes companies to strengthen encryption and uphold the right to own purchased goods.
EFF has built public interest technologies such as Privacy Badger and Certbot.
The speaker plans a livestream with Cory Doctorow on August 12 and additional in-person events this fall.
Executive Summary
The Executive Director reflects on the critical nature of the current moment in determining the future, emphasizing that actions taken now will shape whether the future is characterized by openness and rights or control through fear and surveillance. The individual highlights recent legal and governmental events, including a U.S. Supreme Court win in *Chatrie v. United States* reaffirming privacy rights and a reversal of executive power limits concerning the FTC Commissioner, alongside government directives concerning technology access and advancing legislation limiting social media access globally. This context underscores the necessity of EFF’s work to ensure technology supports rights, justice, freedom, and innovation amid increasing government and corporate surveillance capabilities.
The speaker draws a parallel between the U.S.'s 250th anniversary and EFF's 36th birthday, prompting reflection on how a democracy founded in an analog age can survive in the digital world. The author grounds their commitment by referencing a career in public-interest technology during the dotcom boom, believing in technology's potential for opportunity over profit. The core argument posits that digital rights are not isolated policy issues but must be fought across the digital terrain to secure basic freedoms like access to information and participation in democracy.
The speaker asserts that EFF’s integrated approach—combining legal expertise, activism, and technical knowledge—is essential for challenging powerful forces. This work involves defending against government data collection, shaping AI law, pushing for stronger encryption, and developing public interest technologies. The future requires confronting surveillance, preserving anonymity, ensuring AI respects rights, and building broader movements across civil liberties and economic justice to ensure technology empowers rather than controls.
Full Take
The narrative constructs a potent frame centered on an existential digital conflict: the struggle between technological empowerment and centralized control. The argument masterfully positions digital rights not as a niche policy concern but as foundational to all other civil liberties, effectively creating a necessary link between technical reality and democratic survival. The transition from historical reflection (anniversaries) to immediate threat identification (surveillance, AI concentration) establishes an urgent call to action by framing the current moment as a pivotal juncture where prior technological optimism must be aggressively realized.
The underlying pattern is the insistence that expertise—legal, policy, and technical—is the necessary fulcrum for achieving liberation in the digital sphere. By demonstrating how EFF's integrated approach succeeds where siloed efforts fail, the text subtly critiques approaches that separate innovation from civil liberties, suggesting that this separation is inherently unstable or actively oppressive. The juxtaposition of large-scale governmental actions (surveillance directives) and corporate power (trillion-dollar entities) suggests a systemic failure in existing regulatory structures, which necessitates the kind of intersectional fight EFF undertakes.
The implicit implication is that accepting the false dichotomy between innovation and civil liberties is itself an act of complicity with control. The call to build broader movements beyond technology—encompassing reproductive rights, labor, and economic justice—suggests a strategic understanding that digital terrain fights are not peripheral but are central battlegrounds for achieving holistic human dignity. The voice operates from a place of earned authority rooted in lived experience in the dotcom era, lending weight to the assertion that this struggle is not merely political maneuvering but a necessary defense of fundamental human agency against evolving concentrations of power.
Sentinel — Human
This text exhibits strong markers of human authorship, characterized by a passionate personal narrative that skillfully weaves specific legal updates with broad ethical arguments regarding technology and civil liberties.