Danny O'Brien

Danny O'Brien

EFF SPECIAL ADVISOR

Danny O'Brien is currently a Senior Fellow at the Filecoin Foundation and the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web. He has been an activist for online free speech and privacy for over 20 years. In his home country of the UK, he fought against repressive anti-encryption law, and helped found the Open Rights Group, Britain's own digital rights organization. He was EFF's activist from 2005 to 2007, its international outreach coordinator from 2007-2009, international director from 2013-2019, and director of strategy from 2019-2021. He now acts as an advisor to EFF on issues related to international advocacy and re-decentralizing the web.

In a previous century, Danny wrote and performed the only one-man show about Usenet to have a successful run in London's West End. His geek gossip zine, Need To Know, won a special commendation for services to newsgathering at the first Interactive BAFTAs. He also coined the term "life hack": it has been over a decade since he was first commissioned to write a book on combating procrastination.

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