On June 2, 2026, Cindy Cohn published her memoir, Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance, cementing her legacy just as she prepares to step down as the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. To mark the occasion, the tech podcast Hard Fork brought her on stage for a live retrospective of her career fighting government surveillance.
During the live show, co-host Casey Newton looked back at her early battles, recalling that "one of your first big fights, uh, back in the '90s was defending the cryptologist, uh, Daniel Bernstein against government restrictions on encrypted source code." Casey Newton marvelled that three decades after she defended Daniel Bernstein, the tech industry and the state are still locked in the exact same conflicts over end-to-end encryption.
While the live event also featured lighter segments—such as robot dogs sporting Elon Musk's face—co-host Kevin Roose made sure to highlight Cindy Cohn as one of their "very special guests". At the end of the interview, Kevin Roose offered a warm send-off, saying, "Well, fascinating conversation, Cindy. Thank you so much."
As Cindy Cohn transitions away from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and onto the book tour circuit, her departure signals a major transition for the digital rights movement. With encryption standards facing renewed legislative threats worldwide, the next generation of privacy advocates will have massive shoes to fill.