Danny O'Brien (born 1969) is a British
technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and civil liberties activist. He was the international director of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
.
Career
O'Brien wrote weekly columns for ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' and ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
''; and before that for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', and acted as a consultant in helping ''The Guardian'' formulate its online strategy. He worked for the UK edition of ''
Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'', as well as for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
and the British
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...
Virgin.net. Together with
Dave Green, he founded and wrote the now-defunct email newsletter ''
Need to Know
The term "need to know" (alternatively spelled need-to-know), when used by governments and other organizations (particularly those related to military or intelligence), describes the restriction of data which is considered very confidential and ...
'' and with whom he also co-wrote and co-presented the
television show
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...
''
404 Not Found
In Data communication, computer network communications, the HTTP 404, 404 not found, 404, 404 error, page not found, or file not found error message is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) List of HTTP status codes, standard response code, to ...
''.
In May 2005, he succeeded Ren Bucholz as Activist Coordinator for the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
, and then became EFF's International Outreach Coordinator. In April 2010, he moved to a new position as Internet Advocacy Coordinator for the
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...
. In February 2013, he became the Director of the International Department at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
He was Director of Strategy at the EFF from July 2019 – June 2021.
He become a Senior Fellow at the
Filecoin
Filecoin (⨎) is a cryptocurrency intended to be a blockchain-based Cooperative storage cloud, cooperative digital storage and data retrieval method. It was developed by Protocol Labs and shares some ideas from InterPlanetary File System allowi ...
Foundation, and Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web in July 2021.
O'Brien also set up a pledge on
PledgeBank to help coordinate the establishment of "an organisation that will campaign for digital rights in the UK", which led to the creation of the
Open Rights Group
The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues and by fostering a community of grassroots activists. It campaigns on numerous issues including ma ...
.
Family
O'Brien is married to
Liz Henry. He was previously married to
Quinn Norton
Quinn Norton (born May 1973) is an American journalist and essayist. Her work covers hacker culture, Anonymous, the Occupy movement, intellectual property and copyright issues, and the Internet.
Early life and education
Quinn Norton was born i ...
,
with whom he has a daughter.
See also
*
Life hack
A life hack (or life hacking) is any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life. The term was primarily used by computer experts who suffer from information overload or those with a p ...
References
External links
Oblomovka — O'Brien's weblogO'Brien's homepage
1969 births
Living people
British male bloggers
British male journalists
Place of birth missing (living people)
20th-century British journalists
21st-century British journalists
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