Nicole Ozer Named New Executive Director of the EFF

• Nicole Ozer is the new Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), succeeding long-time leader Cindy Cohn.
• Ozer brings over two decades of experience in public interest technology, privacy, surveillance law, and digital speech.
• Former roles include director at the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco and the Technology and Civil Liberties Program at the ACLU of Northern California.

Key Professional Achievements

• Spearheaded the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which mandates warrants for government access to electronic data.
• Authored the Reader Privacy Act to protect digital reading records.
• Developed model legislation for local democratic oversight of surveillance systems, influencing 25 similar laws nationwide.
• Litigated major civil liberties cases, including NSA challenges, and filed influential amicus briefs in the U.S. and California Supreme Courts.
• Led international campaigns against social media surveillance and facial recognition technologies.

Leadership Transition

• Ozer succeeds Cindy Cohn, who served as Executive Director since 2015 and has been with the organization for over 25 years.
• Cohn is departing to focus on litigation and courtroom work but remains part of the EFF community.