Timothy Edgar
Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs
Professor of the Practice of Computer Science
Timothy H. Edgar is a former national security and intelligence official, cybersecurity expert, privacy lawyer and civil liberties activist. He teaches at Brown University and Harvard Law School.
Edgar launched his professional career at the American Civil Liberties Union shortly before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He left the ACLU to become the intelligence community’s first deputy for civil liberties in 2006. Edgar tells the story of trying to make a difference inside America’s growing surveillance state in Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance and the Struggle to Reform the NSA, winner of the 2018 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize.
In 2009, after President Barack Obama announced the creation of a new National Security Council position “specifically dedicated to safeguarding the privacy and civil liberties of the American people,” Edgar moved to the White House, where he advised Obama on privacy issues in cybersecurity policy.
In 2013, Edgar left government for Brown University to help launch its professional cybersecurity degree program. At Brown, he is a Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Edgar is a contributing editor to Lawfare and his work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and Wired.
August 15, 2022 Newsweek
Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar explains that targeting Americans for surveillance generally requires a warrant from the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in recent Newsweek article.
November 19, 2020 Spreaker
Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar appeared on this episode of the Dan Yorke Show.
November 26, 2019 WPRI
Timothy Edgar, senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, appeared on Dan Yorke State of Mind to discuss the latest on Trump's impeachment inquiry.
November 18, 2019 MSNBC
Timothy Edgar joins MSNBC’s Ari Melber to discuss mounting bribery evidence against President Trump, including secret White House emails obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
November 14, 2019 MSNBC
Timothy Edgar, veteran National Security Intelligence official, joins Ari Melber to discuss the major security implications of Trump’s call and new bribery impeachment evidence on MSNBC.
September 27, 2019 WPRI
Senior Fellow Tim Edgar joined WPRI's Dan York to discuss the declassified whistleblower, Trump's impeachment inquiry and more.
April 26, 2019 PBS' White House Chronicle
Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar joins Llewellyn King and Linda Gasparello of PBS' White House Chronicle to discuss privacy in the era of megadata.