Last Monday was Memorial Day, a day to honor and reflect on those in the US Armed Forces who died in the line of duty defending us.\
While Memorial Day honors military sacrifice, the defense of Americans continues in the digital realm. Many organizations work to protect Americans’ digital security and privacy, including the long-established Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Founded in 1990 as a digital rights and Internet civil liberties lobbying organization by John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor, and John Gilmore, the EFF responded to growing concerns that government agencies, law enforcement, and policymakers lacked sufficient knowledge of the Internet to make informed decisions about digital rights.
Cindy Cohn joined the EFF in 1993 and is currently its Executive Director. Previously, she served as EFF’s Legal Director and General Counsel. In Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance (MIT Press), she brings her life story and experience at the EFF to the written page.
Her new book is part memoir, part legal history, and part a call to action. Throughout this enjoyable read, she recounts over three decades as a digital rights lawyer, describing her roles in many significant legal battles with clarity and insight.
To frame the stakes in the privacy debate, Cohn references Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, who famously said in 1999, "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." His quote sparked an enduring debate on personal privacy in the digital age. Cohn strongly disagrees with this view, positioning the book as her manifesto on why he is mistaken.
Cohn writes that many people miss an aspect of privacy. The textbook definition of privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or their information, thereby selectively expressing themselves.
However, Cohn emphasizes that privacy is fundamentally a check on power. It limits individuals’ influence over each other, as well as the reach of governments and corporations. Ultimately, privacy enables people to protect themselves while creating space for thinking, connecting, communicating, sharing, and most critically, organizing for change.
As to government overreach, Cohn writes about the battles against government surveillance, encryption, free speech, and digital rights.
While written by a lawyer and highlighting numerous legal cases, Cohn does a good job of educating readers about the intricacies involved. And it’s a far cry from TV legal dramas. She writes about legal issues in a most accessible manner, and the reader gets a good introduction to legal theory.
One of the earliest cases Cohn writes of is Bernstein v. United States. The EFF represented Dr. Daniel Bernstein of UC Berkeley, who sought to publish the source code for an encryption program.
In response, the US government argued that cryptographic software was a munition, like grenades and rocket launchers, requiring Bernstein to obtain an extremely expensive, difficult-to-get export license before publishing his encryption software online.
The EFF challenged these export controls, arguing that they violated Bernstein’s First Amendment rights. They won the case, relaxing government restrictions on cryptography. Had the EFF not prevailed, the Internet's underlying security, and, by extension, e-commerce, might never have materialized.
Cybersecurity is often associated with technical measures like firewalls and encryption, but the book demonstrates how security law is intimately connected to information security. It shows that legal protections are as critical to protecting data as technical solutions.
As a personal memoir, Cohn’s strong passion for privacy shapes her perspective. With that, Cohn doesn’t address situations in which conflict may legitimately make privacy secondary, at times, such as national security, law enforcement investigations, and cybercrime prevention.
Bruce Schneier (who says this is an important book for people who care about privacy and security) has long written about the trade-offs between privacy and security, and Cohn’s narrative is from the privacy advocate's side. While her courtroom battles have had her on opposing sides of the NSA, there are countless legitimate reasons why the NSA and government need to do what they do.
In light of current threats, Privacy’s Defender is an important and timely read, reminding us that privacy rights and civil liberties can be eroded by even minor government overreach.
For anyone seeking a clear, thought-provoking look at surveillance, law, and technology today, Privacy’s Defender is an essential and highly recommended read.