Dear Friend of Digital Freedom,

​I've been with EFF full-time for 15 of its 25 years, and I'm writing to ask you to celebrate our 25th anniversary by helping us fight for digital rights for years to come.

I first started working with EFF in the mid-1990s as part of the ragtag band of attorneys that went up against the US national security establishment in Bernstein v. Department of Justice. And won. We established that computer code is protected expression under the First Amendment and helped limit the government's export restrictions on encryption software. When I joined full-time a few years later, EFF was still small and scrappy and fighting incredibly important fights. I'm amazed and proud to see how we've grown since then.

To me, the biggest change has been the way digital technology—and the tracking it enables—has permeated our physical reality. Your devices record and transmit your private data. Automated license plate readers track your driving movements. Facial recognition is increasingly integrated with both government records and commercial photo services. It's all around us, and it's essentially impossible to opt out.

Fighting this trend requires a deep understanding of the laws, policies, and technologies at issue and a passion for defending our rights. At EFF, we fight for you in courts and policy-making bodies around the world, and we build tools and resources to empower you when the system is too slow. Member support is crucial to our swift work and independent stance.

I'm part of EFF because I believe in protecting privacy from government overreach and that privacy should be an essential feature in cool, new technology. I hope you do, too. 

Yours in fighting for digital rights, 

Lee Tien
Senior Staff Attorney and Adams Chair for Internet Rights