Privacy's Defender

My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

By: Cindy Cohn

Narrated by: Cindy Cohn

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 question: 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 NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2026 Cindy Cohn (P)2026 Skyboat Media

Fascinating listen

Cindy communicates the complex legal issues clearly. She also makes legal stories more interesting through weaving in personal anecdotes. For a book about privacy rights, she sure shares a lot of personal information. I also thinks she does a great job narrating her book.

Such important information

As a retired public defender, I can related to the stories about the litigation. Great work!

An Imperative Read for US Constitution Believers

Cindy Cohn’s Privacy’s Defender is a spectacular and highly informative read for those who believe in the crucial importance the First and Fourth Amendments contribute to the democracy of the United States of America. Without these, we don’t have democracy.

Cohn’s journey refreshes our memories of shortcomings and successes through three specific court cases and battles – battles won and then lost and then won again. It’s a roller coaster ride through the American justice (and injustice) system.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been waging a war against big corporations and the U.S. government’s relentless intrusions into American citizens’ digital privacy for decades.

Current events should give those of us who actually believe in what these amendments stand for, serious pause. At a time when separation of powers (three distinct government branches: legislative, executive, and judicial) is scarcely discernable, Privacy’s Defender reminds us of what it is supposed to look like.

This reader is grateful to Cindy Cohn and EFF’s founders, contributors, and supporters for their dedication, determination, and resilience.