Kevin Bankston Explained

Kevin Bankston
Birth Name:	Kevin Stuart Bankston
Birth Date:	2 July 1974
Occupation:	Lawyer
Education:	University of Texas, Austin (BA) University of Southern California (JD)

Kevin Stuart Bankston^[1] (born July 2, 1974)^[2] is an American activist and attorney, who specialized 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]

Education

Bankston earned a BA 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.

He then joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2003 as an Equal Justice Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow. 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 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.

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 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.

Affiliations

• Since 2005 he serves on the board of the First Amendment Coalition, a non-profit public interest organization
• He was a nonresidential fellow at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society

Publications

• The Washington Post, Opinions: The books, films and John Oliver episodes that explain encryption (March 25, 2016)^[11]
• Just Security: It’s Time to End the "Debate" on Encryption Backdoors (July 7, 2015)^[12]
• Lawfare, encryption: Ending The Endless Crypto Debate: Three Things We Should Be Arguing About Instead of Encryption Backdoors (June 14, 2017)^[13]
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF Analysis of the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (S. 1709) (October 30, 2003)^[14]
• CNN: A year after Edward Snowden, the real costs of NSA surveillance (Co-author with Danielle Kehl)^[15]
• While working for EFF, Bankston wrote dozens of articles for "Deeplinks Blog"^[16]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kevin Stuart Bankston #217026 - Attorney Licensee Search.
2. United States Public Records, 1970-2009 (California, 2005-2008)
3. Web site: Social Justice Monday Event: "Social Justice and Cyber Liberties" . Bertino . Nic . 2007-10-19 . law.scu.edu . 2017-11-15 .
4. Web site: Facebook hires critic Kevin Bankston to head its privacy policies . Silicon Valley Business Journal . 2020-01-10 .
5. Web site: First Amendment Coalition Board of Directors – 2017 . firstamendmentcoalition.org . 2017-11-15 .
6. Web site: Bios . ftc.gov . 2017-11-15 .
7. Web site: Equal Justice Works Fellowships . equaljusticeworks.org . 2017-11-15 .
8. Web site: Noted Attorney Kevin Bankston To Head CDT Free Expression Team . 2011-12-19 . cdt.org . 2017-11-15 .
9. Web site: Kevin Bankston Director, Open Technology Institute . newamerica.org . 2017-11-15 .
10. Web site: Statement of Kevin S. Bankston . Bankston . Kevin . 2013-11-13 . cdt.org . 2017-11-15 .
11. Web site: The books, films and John Oliver episodes that explain encryption . Bankston . Kevin . 2016-03-25 . washingtonpost.com . 2017-11-15 .
12. Web site: It's Time to End the "Debate" on Encryption Backdoors . Bankston . Kevin . 2015-07-07 . justsecurity.org . 2017-11-15 .
13. Web site: Ending The Endless Crypto Debate . Bankston . Kevin . 2017-06-14 . lawfareblog.com . 2017-11-15 .
14. Web site: EFF Analysis of the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (S. 1709) . Bankston . Kevin . 2003-10-30 . eff.org . 2017-11-15 .
15. Web site: A year after Snowden, the real costs of NSA surveillance . Bankston . Kevin . Kehl . Danielle . 2014-06-04 . edition.cnn.com . 2017-11-15 .
16. Web site: Declaration of EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston . 2006-01-05 . eff.org . 2017-11-15 .