Emma Leiken

Emma Leiken is a human rights advocate and technologist with a commitment to belonging, information integrity, safety and inclusion both online & off. Currently on the Responsible Technology team at Omidyar Network, Emma leads a portfolio focused on youth organizing and responsible technology. At Omidyar Network, Emma also works on the private trustworthy messaging work stream. Both areas of work are premised on the idea that we deserve a world where we can experience both safety and privacy online. Previously, Emma focused on the exclusionary risks and role of human intermediaries in India’s Aadhaar biometric ID infrastructure at the London School of Economics. Before that, she researched the financial challenges faced by new internet users in India, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil at Google. In 2016, Emma was a recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship where she led research related to human rights, gender, and religious studies, in Maharashtra, India. Passionate about the intersection of arts and social change, she has also worked in civil society on performing arts education in Maharashtra. She holds a B.A. in religion from Oberlin College and an M.A. in international development with a focus on technology from the LSE. Emma serves on the board Cyber Collective and is a 2023 non-residential Technology Policy Fellow with UC Berkeley.