Ifeoma Ozoma

Ifeoma Ozoma (born 1991 or 1992) is an American public policy specialist and technology industry equity advocate. After two years working on public policy at Pinterest, Ozoma resigned and spoke out about mistreatment and racial discrimination she alleged she had experienced at the company. She subsequently began a consulting firm called Earthseed, and has worked to advocate for whistleblower protection legislation and other worker protections in the technology industry. She is the director of tech accountability at the University of California, LA Center on Race and Digital Justice.

She has been recognized by The Root and Time for her work.

Ozoma is followed in the film My NDA along with two other people exposing how non-disclosure agreements in employment contracts are weaponized. Her work on the Silenced No More Act in California is also in the film.

Early life and education Ozoma grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Career and advocacy After graduating college, Ozoma joined Google at the Washington, D.C., office in 2015, where she worked on public policy and was a government liaison.

Pinterest Ozoma joined Pinterest's newly-formed public policy and impact team in 2018. While she was at Pinterest, she orchestrated its widely-praised decision to stop promoting former slave plantations as wedding venues. She also worked on subjects including medical misinformation, and helped Pinterest implement a policy to ban anti-vaccination content from its platform.

While at Pinterest, she spent a year advocating for a pay raise, which she said would have brought her compensation in line with that of colleagues with similar experience and responsibilities. a colleague collaborated with a right-wing group to dox Ozoma by publishing her personal phone number, name, and photographs on extremist websites. She eventually reached a settlement with Pinterest. after Pinterest declared what she believed to be empty support of Black lives in the wake of the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter advocacy around the country. Both women criticized the environment as hostile and discriminatory toward Black women.

Ozoma and Banks each received less than a year of severance pay when they quit. The settlement earmarked $50million into diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the company. |name=sponsor California's Silenced No More Act, legislation that protects employees who speak about harassment and discrimination even if they've signed a non-disclosure agreement. and was passed by the California State Assembly. It was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2021, and went into effect on January 1, 2022.

In fall 2021, Ozoma inspired Chelsey Glasson, a former Google employee who sued for pregnancy discrimination, and worked with Cher Scarlett, a former Apple software engineer and labor activist who had been a leader of the #AppleToo movement, to bring a similar bill to Washington state, which was passed into law in March 2022. Google and Apple committed to Silenced No More protections for all employees.

Apple shareholder proposal In September 2021, Ozoma, non-profit shareholder advocacy group Open MIC, and social impact investing firms Whistle Capital and Nia Impact Capital filed a shareholder proposal at Apple.

On October 18, 2021, Apple filed a no-action response to the shareholder proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claiming that Apple does not utilize the types of concealment clauses that Nia was referencing. On December 21, 2021, the SEC ruled against Apple's filing, a win for the activists. Eight United States treasurers called on the SEC to investigate. Shareholders voted in favor of the proposal of the audit on March 4, 2022. Apple published the results of the audit in December 2022 and committed to non-enforcement of provisions found that might limit "a person’s ability to speak about [unlawful] conduct".

The Tech Worker Handbook In collaboration with organizations such as Omidyar Network, The Signals Network, and Lioness, Ozoma launched The Tech Worker Handbook in October 2021. It is a website containing free resources for tech workers who are looking to make more informed decisions about whether to speak out on issues that are in the public interest. The handbook guides workers through what they might encounter in the legal process, how to approach the media, and information on how to navigate physical and security concerns. This includes anecdotes and recommendations from other tech whistleblowers.

Recognition Ozoma was included in The Root's 2021 "The Root 100", an annual list of the most influential African Americans in various fields.

Ozoma was recognized by Time in 2022 in the Time 100 Next list and was honored as one of the BBC 100 Women in the same year.

Personal life Ozoma resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.