SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Image: Free Press
Rights Groups Slam House Passage of Privacy-Invading CISPA
Rights groups are slamming the House passage of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) Thursday afternoon, a bill they say "undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users."
The bill received strong Republican support with 196 in favor and 29 opposing. But the bill also had the support of nearly half the Democratics, with 92 supporting the measure and 98 voting against it.
Apr 18, 2013
Rights groups are slamming the House passage of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) Thursday afternoon, a bill they say "undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users."
The bill received strong Republican support with 196 in favor and 29 opposing. But the bill also had the support of nearly half the Democratics, with 92 supporting the measure and 98 voting against it.
As digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) describes it, CISPA "would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy law to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government."
Explaining it further, Free Press' Josh Levy has written that
The new CISPA -- just like the old CISPA -- would protect companies like Facebook and Microsoft from legal liability when they hand over your sensitive online data to the federal government, without any regard for your privacy. The bill would permit the government -- including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security -- to use that information for matters that have nothing to do with cybersecurity. The whole process would, of course, take place behind closed doors, with no accountability to the public.
The ACLU is also among the 34 civil liberties organizations and 74 Internet security experts and academics ushering warnings about CISPA.
"CISPA is an extreme proposal that allows companies that hold our very sensitive information to share it with any company or government entity they choose, even directly with military agencies like the NSA, without first stripping out personally identifiable information," Michelle Richardson, a legislative counsel at the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, said in a statement following the House vote.
"This bill undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users," added Rainey Reitman, EFF Activism Director, on Thursday, and said EFF was "committed to taking this fight to the Senate."
President Obama has said he would veto the bill in its current form.
________________________
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Rights groups are slamming the House passage of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) Thursday afternoon, a bill they say "undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users."
The bill received strong Republican support with 196 in favor and 29 opposing. But the bill also had the support of nearly half the Democratics, with 92 supporting the measure and 98 voting against it.
As digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) describes it, CISPA "would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy law to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government."
Explaining it further, Free Press' Josh Levy has written that
The new CISPA -- just like the old CISPA -- would protect companies like Facebook and Microsoft from legal liability when they hand over your sensitive online data to the federal government, without any regard for your privacy. The bill would permit the government -- including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security -- to use that information for matters that have nothing to do with cybersecurity. The whole process would, of course, take place behind closed doors, with no accountability to the public.
The ACLU is also among the 34 civil liberties organizations and 74 Internet security experts and academics ushering warnings about CISPA.
"CISPA is an extreme proposal that allows companies that hold our very sensitive information to share it with any company or government entity they choose, even directly with military agencies like the NSA, without first stripping out personally identifiable information," Michelle Richardson, a legislative counsel at the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, said in a statement following the House vote.
"This bill undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users," added Rainey Reitman, EFF Activism Director, on Thursday, and said EFF was "committed to taking this fight to the Senate."
President Obama has said he would veto the bill in its current form.
________________________
Rights groups are slamming the House passage of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) Thursday afternoon, a bill they say "undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users."
The bill received strong Republican support with 196 in favor and 29 opposing. But the bill also had the support of nearly half the Democratics, with 92 supporting the measure and 98 voting against it.
As digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) describes it, CISPA "would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy law to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government."
Explaining it further, Free Press' Josh Levy has written that
The new CISPA -- just like the old CISPA -- would protect companies like Facebook and Microsoft from legal liability when they hand over your sensitive online data to the federal government, without any regard for your privacy. The bill would permit the government -- including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security -- to use that information for matters that have nothing to do with cybersecurity. The whole process would, of course, take place behind closed doors, with no accountability to the public.
The ACLU is also among the 34 civil liberties organizations and 74 Internet security experts and academics ushering warnings about CISPA.
"CISPA is an extreme proposal that allows companies that hold our very sensitive information to share it with any company or government entity they choose, even directly with military agencies like the NSA, without first stripping out personally identifiable information," Michelle Richardson, a legislative counsel at the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, said in a statement following the House vote.
"This bill undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users," added Rainey Reitman, EFF Activism Director, on Thursday, and said EFF was "committed to taking this fight to the Senate."
President Obama has said he would veto the bill in its current form.
________________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.