"[9][10] She attended Loyola University New Orleans, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1999 with a major in Philosophy and English Literature and minor in Classics.

[12] Between 2004 and 2005, Franks taught courses in ethics, world religions, and introductory philosophy within the Department of Humanities at Quincy College in Massachusetts.

In 2021, she was appointed to the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair "to recognize her substantial contributions and ongoing accomplishments in scholarship and advocacy at the confluence of civil rights and technology.

[12] In October 2022, Franks joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project launched by Issue One to address the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts of social media in the United States co-chaired by former House Democratic Caucus Leader Dick Gephardt and former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Franks also writes for various news media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Guardian.

[21] As a frequent legal commentator in the media on cyberlaw and criminal law issues, Franks has been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker, and she has appeared on CNN, the Today show, and Vice News.

[12] Franks is a co-producer of the 2015 film Hot Girls Wanted, a documentary produced by the actress Rashida Jones that examines the "professional amateur" porn industry.

[28] In 2015, several major tech companies, most notably Google,[29] announced Archived July 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine that they would be adding sexually explicit images published without consent to their privacy and removal policies.

[32] In addition to her work in legal scholarship and activism, she is an instructor in Krav Maga, a self-defense system developed for the military in Israel.