Violet Blue is an investigative journalist on cybersecurity, privacy and digital rights, having bylined for outlets including O The Oprah Magazine, Engadget, Financial Times, CNN, CBS News, San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, Yahoo News, and many others. Guardian UK called Ms. Blue, "One of the leading figures in tech writing in the world." She is a member of the Internet Press Guild and Advisor to online legal privacy resource Without My Consent.
She is a prolific author and editor, and five-time Independent Publisher Book Awards ("IPPY") winner. Ms. Blue's most notable book appearance was on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.
Her book The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy was praised by ELLE Magazine as, “An illuminating handbook for women.” Ingram wrote, “This book is highly recommended for public and school libraries, as well as social science and technology classes.” Book Riot wrote, “It’s up to each one of us to protect our own privacy, and The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy is a crucial weapon in that fight.” The book saw praise in Foreword Reviews, ELLE, Bitch, The Advocate, Ingram Collection, Book Riot, DAME Magazine, ChicagoNow, Daily Dot, and more.
Ms. Blue's other titles have been featured in BBC, Columbia Journalism Review, Guardian UK, Harper's, New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Wired, and more.
Her work has been cited in numerous books including David Levy's Love + Sex With Robots, The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss, and others.
Forthcoming projects include appearing in documentary Mental Health and Horror (2023; TBA), and revised The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy (2023; TBA).
Ms. Blue's miscellaneous accomplishments:
- Conference appearances at ETech, LeWeb, CCC, the Forbes Brand Leadership Conference, The Oslo Freedom Forum, and two Google Tech Talks
- A guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tyra Banks Show, CNN, NPR, BBC, and HBO's Thought Crimes.
- Ms. Blue has lectured to cyberlaw classes at UC Berkeley (Boalt; Samuelson Law Clinic), colleges and community teaching institutions, UCSF's NGO Global Health Training Program, tech conferences (ETech, LeWeb, SXSWi) and co-led a cybersecurity training for high risk journalists at global human rights conference Oslo Freedom Forum. Ms. Blue is a trained crisis counselor.
- Wired’s 25 Faces of Innovation, Forbes "The Web Celeb 25"
- Contributor to books by: Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Carol Queen, Laura Corn, others
- Book awards: Three IPPY Gold, one Silver, one Bronze
-Ms. Blue has reported many breaking stories, including: Anonymous hacking The U.S. Federal Reserve ("The Fed" Bank); social sharing app Snapchat hacked; Comcast hacked and millions of user accounts compromised; Apple iMessage and Apple iCloud exploited; hacking an Apple iPhone in 60 seconds.
