PRESS RELEASE: EPIC Welcomes Ari Ezra Waldman as New Board Chair

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) announced that Ari Ezra Waldman has begun his term as Chair of its Board of Directors for a two-year term, effective January 1, 2025.  

“We have been fortunate to have Ari on our Board since 2022 and are thrilled for him to take on the role of Board Chair this year. Ari’s incisive research on privacy, digital governance, and civil rights of the LGBTQ+ community inspires our work and we are lucky to have him on our leadership team,” said Alan Butler, EPIC Executive Director and President. 

Ari has served on EPIC’s Board since 2022 and is well-positioned to lead EPIC over these next two years. “EPIC is, in many ways, unique among civil society organizations in the law and technology field. It is not beholden to corporate donors. Nor does it toe the line of milquetoast moderation in a regulatory space where bold action is needed. Today more than ever, we need strong voices for corporate accountability and fearless advocates for robust guardrails against oligarchy and kakistocracy. My goal is simple: To enable the excellent leadership and staff at EPIC to do their best work.” 

Ari Ezra Waldman (he or they) is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine. He is internationally recognized in academic, advocacy, and policy circles for his expertise at the intersection of law, technology and society. Recognizing the impact of law and technology on marginalized and minoritized groups, he has dedicated his research to understanding the social dynamics of law, particularly with respect to privacy, artificial intelligence, misinformation, and the LGBTQ+ community. 

Professor Waldman is an accomplished scholar, having published three influential books, among them: Privacy As Trust: Information Privacy for an Information Age and Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power, both of which have won several awards. His scholarly articles have been published or are forthcoming in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, such as the Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review (twice), Northwestern University Law Review, Cornell Law Review, as well as Law & Social Inquiry, Big Data & Society, and the Journal of Business Ethics, among others. He has reached a broader audience through his contributions to publications like The New York Times, Slate, New York Daily News, and The Advocate. 

EPIC’s former Board Chair, Shoshana Zuboff will continue her service as a member of the EPIC Board. “Shoshana has helped usher EPIC into a new era, and her strong leadership and thoughtful guidance these past years has been invaluable for me, and for our larger EPIC community. I want to thank her for her service and commitment to EPIC’s mission,” said EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler. 

“The opportunity to deepen my work with EPIC as Board Chair over the last two years has been one of the great honors of my professional life. EPIC’s leadership and Staff are without question some of the most brilliant, passionate, dedicated, and productive individuals that I have ever known. Their research and advocacy stand as a bulwark informing citizens in order to preserve what is most precious in our democracy. They stand up for the right to a private life, even as they use their formidable skills to block and tackle the growing and unaccountable power of the tech giants that turn our lives into data to use against our interests, threaten our institutions, and defy our bedrock democratic values. With each new danger, EPIC remains steady on the watchtower, protecting and defending democratic laws, principles and values,” said Shoshana Zuboff, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, Harvard Business School, Author, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. 

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About EPIC  

EPIC was established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Our mission is to secure the fundamental right to privacy in the digital age for all people through advocacy, research, and litigation. EPIC pursues a wide range of program activities, including litigating cases on emerging privacy issues, obtaining and publishing records to lift the veil on government data collection, providing expert advice to policymakers and lawmakers, and facilitating dialogue between advocates, experts, and decisionmakers. EPIC is an independent organization guided by its Board of Directors and Advisory Board, which are composed of experts in law, technology, and public policy. Visit epic.org for more information.

References   

EPIC Board and Staff