For over 30 years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has presented awards recognizing key leaders and organizations advancing innovation and championing digital rights. The EFF Awards celebrate the accomplishments of people working toward a better future for technology users, both in the public eye and behind the scenes.
EFF is pleased to welcome all members of the digital rights community, supporters, and friends to this annual award ceremony. Join us to celebrate this year's honorees with drinks, bytes, and excellent company.
We are proud to present awards to this year's winners:
JUST FUTURES LAW
EFF Award for Leading Immigration and Surveillance Litigation
ERIE MEYER
EFF Award for Protecting Americans' Data
SOFTWARE FREEDOM LAW CENTER, INDIA
EFF Award for Defending Digital Freedoms
EFF Award Ceremony
Wednesday, September 10th, 2025
6:00 PM to 10:00 PM Pacific
San Francisco Design Center Galleria
101 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco, CA
General Admission: $55 | Current EFF Members: $45 | Students: $35
Event Schedule:
6:00 PM Reception
7:30 PM Award Ceremony
8:30 PM Post-event Mingling
Thank you to Fastly, DuckDuckGo, Corellium, and No Starch Press for their year-round support of EFF's mission.
Want to show your team’s support for EFF? Sponsorships ensure we can continue hosting events like this to build community among digital rights supporters. Please visit eff.org/thanks or contact tierney@eff.org for more information on corporate giving and sponsorships.
COVID-19 Precautions:
Guests are strongly encouraged to monitor their own health and to stay home if sick or experiencing symptoms of illness. If you wish to take a COVID-19 test, a limited supply of them will be available at the door, first come, first serve. Mask use is welcome, but not required.
TRANSIT:
Parking is available in the parking lot across the street. Public Transportation available via Muni Route 19, 22, 55, Civic Center or 16th & Mission Bart Stations, or 4th street Caltrain station.
ACCESSIBILITY:
The main event space is wheelchair accessible, on concrete floor. Lively music will be playing, and the award ceremony speakers will be using a microphone, so louder volumes are expected. Accessible restrooms are located on the main level.
EFF is committed to improving accessibility for our events. If you will be attending in-person and need accommodations, or have accessibility questions prior to the event, please contact events@eff.org. If you require an ASL interpreter, please contact us by August 8th.
During the event, please ask any EFF staff for assistance.
DRESS CODE:
Dress as you feel whether it's festive, formal, or casual! Our audience wears everything from gowns to hoodies.
FOOD & DRINK:
The celebration will include small bites and desserts, as well as a hosted bar with wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages! Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free food options will be available.
More About the 2025 EFF Award Winners
Just Futures Law
Just Futures Law is a women-of-color-led law project that recognizes how surveillance disproportionately impacts immigrants and people of color in the United States. It uses litigation to fight back as part of defending and building the power of immigrant rights and criminal justice activists, organizers, and community groups to prevent criminalization, detention, and deportation of immigrants and people of color. Just Futures was founded in 2019 using a movement lawyering and racial justice framework and seeks to transform how litigation and legal support serves communities and builds movement power.
In the past year, Just Futures sued the Department of Homeland Security and its subagencies seeking a court order to compel the agencies to release records on their use of AI and other algorithms, and sued the Trump Administration for prematurely halting Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, a humanitarian program that allows hundreds of thousands of Haitians to temporarily remain and work in the United States due to Haiti’s current conditions of extraordinary crises. It has represented activists in their fight against tech giants like Clearview AI, it has worked with Mijente to launch the TakeBackTech fellowship to train new advocates on grassroots-directed research, and it has worked with Grassroots Leadership to fight for the release of detained individuals under Operation Lone Star.
Erie Meyer
Erie Meyer is a Senior Fellow at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator where she focuses on the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence, and regulation, and a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. She is former Chief Technologist at both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission. Earlier, she was senior advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer at the White House, where she co-founded the United States Digital Service, a team of technologists and designers working to improve digital services for the public. Meyer also worked as senior director at Code for America, a nonprofit that promotes civic hacking to modernize government services, and in the Ohio Attorney General's office at the height of the financial crisis.
Since January 20, Meyer has helped organize former government technologists to stand up for the privacy and integrity of governmental systems that hold Americans’ data. In addition to organizing others, she filed a declaration in federal court in February warning that 12 years of critical records could be irretrievably lost in the CFPB’s purge by the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. In April, she filed a declaration in another case warning about using private-sector AI on government information. That same month, she testified to the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation that DOGE is centralizing access to some of the most sensitive data the government holds—Social Security records, disability claims, even data tied to national security—without a clear plan or proper oversight, warning that “DOGE is burning the house down and calling it a renovation.”
Software Freedom Law Center
Software Freedom Law Center, India is a donor-supported legal services organization based in India that brings together lawyers, policy analysts, students, and technologists to protect freedom in the digital world. It promotes innovation and open access to knowledge by helping developers make great free and open-source software, protects privacy and civil liberties for Indians by educating and providing free legal advice, and helps policymakers make informed and just decisions about use of technology.
Founded in 2010 by technology lawyer and online civil liberties activist Mishi Choudhary, SFLC.IN tracks and participates in litigation, AI regulations, and free speech issues that are defining Indian technology. It also tracks internet shutdowns and censorship incidents across India, provides digital security training, and has launched the Digital Defenders Network, a pan-Indian network of lawyers committed to protecting digital rights. It has conducted landmark litigation cases, petitioned the government of India on freedom of expression and internet issues, and campaigned for WhatsApp and Facebook to fix a feature of their platform that has been used to harass women in India.
EFF is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, and all participants are encouraged to view our full Event Expectations.
Questions? Email us at events@eff.org.
