By: Caitlyn Hall
Although Congress is currently contemplating revising the twenty-seven year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act in response to privacy concerns, it is also considering other legislation that could pose significant threats to the privacy of internet users. In April 2012, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The bill, which has prompted widespread criticism from civil liberties groups, would allow private entities to share information relating to potential cyber-threats originating from foreign nations with the NSA and other members of the intelligence community.
CISPA’s proponents argue that it protects American business and intellectual property and ensures that government is adequately equipped to deal with web-based attacks from abroad, and that the bill provides adequate privacy protections, including prohibiting the government from forcing private entities to share information with the government and encouraging firms to minimize the information they share with the government. Critics, however, say that the bill does not contain adequate privacy safeguards, such as requiring service providers to remove irrelevant data before passing information along to the government, and add that CISPA in fact provides legal protections for entities that choose to cooperate with the NSA.
The House Select Committee on Intelligence, which is responsible for the bill, has made a number of amendments in response to concerns from privacy advocates, including adding a provision that limits the private sector’s use of cybersecurity information received to only cybersecurity uses, prohibiting private entities from “counter-hacking,” and removing language that would allow the government to use the data collected for “national security” purposes. But critics respond that the changes made have been mostly cosmetic, and warn that CISPA could permit government surveillance of email communications, and might allow private firms to share geolocation and other user data. The White House has threatened to veto CISPA, citing privacy and civil liberties issues raised by the bill.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/civil-liberties-fears-dooms-house-cybersecurity-bill/
http://www.cio.com.au/article/458812/critics_cispa_still_government_surveillance_bill/
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/16/white-house-threatens-to-veto-cyber-bill/
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr624