Kevin Bankston
American activist and attorney (born 1974)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kevin Stuart Bankston[1] (born July 2, 1974)[2] is an American attorney who specializes in the areas of free speech and privacy law.[3] He is currently Privacy Policy Director at Facebook, where he leads policy work on AI and emerging technologies.[4] He was formerly the director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.[5]
July 2, 1974
Kevin Bankston | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | Kevin Stuart Bankston July 2, 1974 |
| Education | University of Texas, Austin (BA) University of Southern California (JD) |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Education
Bankston earned a B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2001 he completed a Juris Doctor at the University of Southern California.[6]
Career
In his early career Bankston served, from 2001 until 2002,[7] as a Justice William J. Brennan First Amendment Fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York City. At the ACLU he litigated Internet-related free speech cases.[6]
He then joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2003 as an Equal Justice Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow.[7] From 2003 until 2005 he studied the impact anti-terrorism-related surveillance initiatives had on online privacy and free speech after 9/11. At the EFF he specialized in free speech and privacy law[3] and later became senior staff attorney.[8] In the EFF's lawsuits against the National Security Agency (NSA) and AT&T where the lawfulness of the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program was challenged, Bankston was a lead counsel.[6]
After working for almost ten years at the EFF Bankston joined the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) in Washington, D.C. in early 2012. As senior counsel and the director of the Free Expression Policy Project[8] he advocated a variety of internet and technology policy issues at the Nonprofit organization.[9] In November 2013 he spoke before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law on The Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013.[10] He later became the director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at the New America Foundation in Washington DC.[5]
Bankston is also an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.[11]
Affiliations
- Since 2005 he serves on the board of the First Amendment Coalition, a non-profit public interest organization[9]
- He was a nonresidential fellow at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society[9]
Publications
- The Washington Post, Opinions: The books, films and John Oliver episodes that explain encryption (March 25, 2016)[12]
- Just Security: It’s Time to End the "Debate" on Encryption Backdoors (July 7, 2015)[13]
- Lawfare, encryption: Ending The Endless Crypto Debate: Three Things We Should Be Arguing About Instead of Encryption Backdoors (June 14, 2017)[14]
- Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF Analysis of the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (S. 1709) (October 30, 2003)[15]
- CNN: A year after Edward Snowden, the real costs of NSA surveillance (Co-author with Danielle Kehl)[16]
- While working for EFF, Bankston wrote dozens of articles for "Deeplinks Blog"[17]