Chair and co-founder, noyb
Max Schrems is an Austrian lawyer, author and privacy activist who co-founded noyb (the European Center for Digital Rights) in 2017, a non-profit that brings strategic cases and campaigns supporting EU data protection law. noyb’s 2025 annual report, published in October 2026, quotes him as CEO.
Career facts from the sources
- His 2013 complaint challenged Facebook’s transfers of EU data to the US; on October 6, 2015 the Court of Justice of the EU ruled the US “Safe Harbor” framework invalid (“Schrems I”).
- In “Schrems II”, on July 16, 2020, the Court invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield and required scrutiny of standard contractual clauses.
- Awards listed on Wikipedia include the EPIC Privacy Champion Award (2013), the Theodor-Heuss-Medal (2015) and the EFF Pioneer Award (2016).
In its 2025 report noyb said work on the EU Digital Omnibus had “limited our resources for other matters”, and it is preparing its first collective redress case.