Sean O'Brien – Privacy and Security Expertise

I'm Sean O'Brien, a cybersecurity innovator.

Sean O’Brien is the founder and leader of Yale Privacy Lab, an initiative of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. He is the head tutor of Oxford Cyber Futures, a program of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and is a former lecturer at Yale Law School (Cybersecurity LAW 20310). Sean is the founder and Executive Director of PrivacySafe Technology Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate and empower people via private and secure technology. He was the founding editor of The Privacy Issue and is a subject-matter expert in cybersecurity, privacy, and mobile forensics.

PrivacySafe hosts remote classes via a private and secure Learning Commons: https://privacysafe.tech

Ban Face Surveillance!

Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) is a serious threat to privacy, autonomy, and freedom of expression. I am passionately opposed to Face Surveillance via FRT and am pursuing bans at Yale University and for the City of New Haven, Connecticut.

Press Coverage – Yale Daily News | The Guardian | FFTF Blog | New Haven Indy | ExpressVPN
Letter to Yale President Peter Salovey, March 2, 2020 (PDF)
Draft New Haven Face Surveillance Ban (Office Doc)
Draft New Haven Face Surveillance Ban (PDF)
All legislative documents are licensed CC0 / released into the Public Domain.

years in higher education

90 +

Hands-on Tech Workshops

Years In Open Source (FOSS)

Digital Self-Defense Training

From $99 / hour

I show people how to be safe and aware while traversing the digital landscape. Learners must approach privacy and cybersecurity step-by-step, integrating strategies rather than relying on catch-all solutions.

Cyber Attack Demos

From $299 PER SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT

I want people to see cyber attacks first-hand so they can guard against them. My demonstrations contain safe, simplified examples of real-world attacks that are designed for audience interaction.

Joshua Gay, Open Source Community Manager at IEEE

★★★★★ 5/5

“Sean has distinguished himself as a leader within the Free Software community. He is capable of communicating about the Free Software movement and information technology because he is immersed in it. I have gained a deep appreciation for Sean’s knowledge in his roles as a developer, activist, and educator, as well as his ability to understand and think critically at many different levels and to communicate about difficult issues to people with diverse backgrounds.”