Peter Daniel Eckersley, an Australian computer scientist, computer security researcher, and activist has died at age 43.

What was Peter Eckersley’s cause of death? Eckersley was diagnosed with cancer on 31 August, but died of complications during pre-operative preparations to treat the disease.

Eckersley’s death was announced by one of his former colleagues, Seth Schoen;

From 2006 to 2018, Eckersley worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, including as chief computer scientist and head of AI policy.

In 2018 he left the EFF to become director of research at the Partnership on AI, a position he held until 2020. In 2021 he co-founded the AI Objectives Institute.

While at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Eckersley started projects including Let’s Encrypt, Privacy Badger, Certbot, HTTPS Everywhere, SSL Observatory, and Panopticlick.

Eckersley was an outspoken advocate on topics including internet privacy, net neutrality, and the ethics of artificial intelligence.