Kevin Bankston facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kevin Bankston
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| Born |
Kevin Stuart Bankston
July 2, 1974 |
| Education | University of Texas, Austin (BA) University of Southern California (JD) |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Kevin Stuart Bankston was born on July 2, 1974. He is an American lawyer who focuses on free speech and privacy law. This means he works to protect people's rights to speak freely and keep their personal information private, especially online.
Currently, Kevin Bankston is the Privacy Policy Director at Facebook. In this role, he helps guide how Facebook handles privacy for new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Before this, he was the director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) in Washington, D.C..
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Kevin Bankston's Education Journey
Kevin Bankston studied at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree there.
Later, in 2001, he continued his studies at the University of Southern California. He completed a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, which is a law degree.
Kevin Bankston's Career in Law
Early Work in Free Speech
After finishing law school, Kevin Bankston started his career helping people. From 2001 to 2002, he worked for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York City. He was a special fellow focusing on the First Amendment.
At the ACLU, he worked on legal cases about free speech on the internet. He helped make sure people could express themselves online without unfair limits.
Protecting Privacy and Free Speech Online
In 2003, Kevin Bankston joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). This organization works to protect digital rights. He became a fellow there, studying how new rules after 9/11 affected online privacy and free speech.
At the EFF, he became an expert in privacy and free speech law. He later became a senior staff attorney. He was a lead lawyer in important lawsuits against the National Security Agency (NSA) and AT&T. These lawsuits questioned whether the NSA's program of listening in on calls without a warrant was legal.
Advocating for Internet Policy
After nearly ten years at the EFF, Kevin Bankston moved to the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) in Washington, D.C., in early 2012. As a senior counsel, he led the Free Expression Policy Project. He worked on many issues related to internet and technology policy for this Nonprofit organization.
In November 2013, he spoke to a special committee in the United States Senate. He talked about a law called "The Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013." This law aimed to make government surveillance more open and clear.
Later, he became the director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI). This institute is part of the New America Foundation and focuses on technology policy.
Kevin Bankston's Affiliations
- Since 2005, he has been on the board of the First Amendment Coalition. This is a non-profit group that works to protect free speech and open government.
- He was also a nonresidential fellow at the Stanford Law School’s Stanford Center for Internet and Society. This center studies how the internet affects society and law.
