CISPA

Hysteria, misinformation and over-reaction rein supreme in the House of Representatives in the CISPA votes.

CISPA passes House despite Obama veto threat

2:21pm | 18 April 2013 | by Access Team

The House of Representatives passed the privacy-invading Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by a vote of 288 - 127. The bill must still pass the Senate, and overcome a veto threat from Obama, before it becomes law.

This is CISPA’s second passage through the house. Like last year, the bill lacks adequate privacy protections, offers overly broad immunity to corporations, and would undermine existing legal protections for user data and privacy. Like last year, Access condemns the passage of CISPA, and will continue to work against it as it passes to the Senate.

CISPA allows for sharing of personally identifiable data from private companies with the military and government agencies, without limited safeguards. While CISPA does not require that companies share this data, it grants them broad legal immunity--so long as they acted in “good faith.”

The vote came after hearings on a number of amendments, which Access is still analyzing. Some proposed privacy-protecting amendments were ignored or blocked from consideration; including one which would have required that information be shared only with civilian agencies, and another would have required private entities to take “reasonable efforts” to remove personally identifiable information on individuals unrelated to cyberthreats.

Despite the bill’s passage, the threat of a presidential veto still stands. The Obama administration’s threat comes after an open letter by dozens of US privacy and civil liberties organizations requesting he reject the bill.

CISPA would not only affect users in the US, but anyone using US-based services, like Facebook or Google, or communicating on US networks--and it would set a dangerous precedent around the world for cybersecurity policy.

The bill was publicly opposed by academics and engineers, companies (a list is available at CISPAisBack.org), and civil liberties and privacy organizations.

https://www.accessnow.org/blog/2013/04/18/cispa-passes-house-despite-obama-veto-threat


In the words of Rep. John Conyers, Jr:

Today the House of Representatives is voting on a bill that could shred online privacy and harm our civil liberties. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act – or CISPA – is a vaguely-worded bill that could allow private e-mails, posts on social media, or personal information to be read by federal intelligence agencies like the NSA or law enforcement agencies such as the FBI.

	Let's work together to defeat CISPA.

Even worse, following an intense lobbying campaign by private corporate interests, House Republicans have not allowed critical privacy amendments to fix the core problems with the bill.

For far too long, corporate money has drowned out the voice of the people and won out over our personal freedoms.
With online privacy at stake, we can’t let this continue. Contribute $3 or more today to help safeguard your privacy and defeat CISPA.

If CISPA becomes law, the federal government could have access to anything from private medical records to personal family e-mails. And the large companies involved in sharing this private information will not be held responsible if they fail to make the right decisions with your personal information and about cyber threats.
We simply can’t let it get to that point. Chip in and fight back today:

Thank you for standing with me.

Sincerely yours,

John Conyers, Jr.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) — the bill that would obliterate our privacy laws and chill free expression online — just passed in the House. This awful bill can still be stopped: It needs to pass the Senate. And the White House has threatened to veto it. But one thing is clear: We can’t just wait and hope that the Senate or the White House will do the right thing. Donate $20 to the Free Press Action Fund today to help us stop CISPA Free Press activists like you have sent more than 80,000 petition signatures and generated more than 3,000 calls to Congress to stop this bill. Now, we have to drum up even more opposition — and we’re going to need your help. In the coming weeks, we and our allies will be reminding our senators of the threat CISPA poses to our basic rights. We’ll remind them that CISPA would let Facebook and Google freely disclose our private messages, status updates, photos, searches, likes and location to the Department of Homeland Security or possibly even the National Security Agency. We’ll remind them that CISPA’s passage would make us less free to state our opinions online — we’ll be too nervous about Big Brother getting a feed of everything we say and do. And we’ll remind our senators that they represent us — not big tech companies or federal spy agencies — and that they have an obligation to protect our right to speak freely online. But we won’t be able to do any of it without you. Contribute $20 to the Free Press Action Fund today. Together, we can stop this relentless attack on our freedom to connect online. Thank you. Onward, Josh, Carrie, Tessa and the rest of the Free Press Action Fund team P.S. We can’t rely on members of the Senate to protect our privacy and freedom of speech — we need to speak up and demand that they do it. Your $20 contribution to the Free Press Action Fund today will help raise our collective voices and stop CISPA in its tracks.

The Free Press Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization building a nationwide movement for media that serve the public interest. The Free Press Action Fund does not support or oppose any candidate for public office. Learn more at www.freepress.net.