Nicole's Bio

Nicole Wong specializes in assisting high-growth technology companies to develop international privacy, content, and regulatory strategies. She previously served as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the Obama Administration, focused on internet, privacy, and innovation policy. Prior to her time in government, Nicole served as the Legal Director for Products at Twitter. From 2004 to 2011, she was Google’s Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, primarily responsible for the company’s product and regulatory matters. During her time at Google, she became known as “The Decider” because of her work managing censorship and law enforcement demands from governments around the world.

Before joining Google, Nicole was a partner at the law firm of Perkins Coie and advised some of Silicon Valley’s early and notable tech companies, including Yahoo!, Hotmail and Netscape. She is a frequent speaker and author on issues related to law and technology, including five appearances before the U.S. Congress regarding internet policy. She currently serves as an advisor to several technology companies on issues of privacy, regulatory strategy and international development. 

Nicole has taught First Amendment, internet law and policy courses as an adjunct professor and lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University and University of San Francisco.  She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University, and a law degree and a Master’s degree in Journalism from UC Berkeley.

Nicole chairs the board of Friends of Global Voices, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting citizen and online media projects globally. She also sits on the boards of WITNESS, an organization supporting the use of video to advance human rights; the Mozilla Foundation, which promotes the open internet; and The Markup, a non-profit investigative news organization covering technology. She currently serves as co-chair of the Digital Freedom Forum, and as an an advisor to the AI Now Institute, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, Luminate, Refactor Capital, and the Albright Stonebridge Group. 

Nicole began her legal career representing newspapers, TV and radio broadcasters in First Amendment matters. She previously served on the advisory board to the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law, the Board of Directors of the First Amendment Coalition and the San Francisco Sunshine Task Force.

While in law school, Nicole was one of the founders and the first editor-in-chief of the Asian Law Journal from 1992-1995.  She served on the Board of Governors for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association from 1996-1998, and, in 2005, she was honored as one of NAPABA’s Best Lawyers Under 40. 

In 2011, Nicole was recognized by FastCase as one of the fifty most interesting, provocative and courageous leaders in law. In 2015, she received the Dale Minami Public Interest Award for leadership in openness on the Internet, free expression and democracy.

Nicole Wong specializes in assisting high-growth technology companies to develop international privacy, content, and regulatory strategies. She previously served as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the Obama Administration, focused on internet, privacy, and innovation policy. Prior to her time in government, Nicole was Google’s Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, and Twitter’s Legal Director for Products. She frequently speaks on issues related to law and technology, including five appearances before the U.S. Congress. Nicole chairs the board of Friends of Global Voices, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting citizen and online media projects globally. She also sits on the boards of WITNESS, an organization supporting the use of video to advance human rights; the Mozilla Foundation, which promotes the open internet; and The Markup, a non-profit investigative news organization covering technology. Nicole currently serves as co-chair of the Digital Freedom Forum, and as an advisor to the AI Now Institute, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, Luminate, Refactor Capital, and the Albright Stonebridge Group.