We're the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and we're thrilled to be celebrating a quarter-century of fighting for digital rights.

We're kicking off this milestone in two ways: a membership drive and a party and minicon in San Francisco on July 16. We're asking people to donate and become members because we fight passionately for the rights of individuals—and in turn, rely deeply on individuals to strengthen our work as we confront threats from powerful institutions and as technology transforms our lives. We're throwing the party to celebrate 25 years of work in the digital world and imagine what the next 25 years ought to look like. More information on our anniversary activities is below.

EFF's Story

In July of 1990, three pioneers of the digital world—John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore, and Mitch Kapor—founded an organization dedicated to defending people on the emerging electronic frontier. Twenty-five years later, EFF has fought for the users in myriad, pivotal battles over computers, networks, and rights. We've grown into a staff of 60 people, with 22,000 active donors and hundreds of thousands of supporters around the world, and have never been more ambitious about building the future upon a core foundation of privacy, free expression, and innovation.

Writing as one of those staff members today, it's inspiring to consider what EFF and our supporters have done and how we've grown. We helped secure Fourth Amendment protections for emails, established that code is speech, and stopped patent trolls and stupid patents, defended creators, and secured commonsense protections for everyday users of technology. We've trained activists and journalists on protecting their communications, built tools to make browsing safer and more secure, and exposed and analyzed vulnerabilities in consumer products. We helped architect a successful defense against SOPA, the entertainment industry's wayward attack on the Internet. We uncovered key legal details behind the government's mass spying programs and we've stood before a judge time and time again to challenge US government overreach. And we have many, many exciting and important projects ongoing and planned for the next few years.

Our founders recognized that many of the civil liberties battles of the 20th century would be fought again, only this time against the transformative backdrop of the digital world. Mounting a strong defense has required a deep understanding of the laws, policies, and technologies at issue and an abiding passion. As digital technology has increasingly permeated our physical reality, bringing with it exciting new opportunities as well as dangers, EFF's mission has grown and become even more important. With the support of people like you, we will keep fighting for our rights to privacy, free expression, and creativity.

So please, celebrate our anniversary with us, and help us fight the good fight for many anniversaries to come.

Anniversary Activities

EFF25 Membership Drive

Individual supporters have been the foundation of EFF's work for 25 years, defending privacy and free expression while advancing creativity and online rights. We hope to add 2,500 new and renewing members before our 25th anniversary celebration on July 16 in order to build a stronger digital rights community.

25th Anniversary Party + Minicon

On July 16, join us in San Francisco to celebrate 25 years of fighting for the users by toasting the past and envisioning the future. The minicon starts at noon, featuring a series of panels about online rights, as well as crypto trainings and hacking challenges. The party starts at 8 pm, emceed by Wil Wheaton and Cory Doctorow with music by Midtown Social, Dual Core, and A plus D.