Lawmakers in the US incurred the wrath of the web when they tried to push the SOPA and PIPA bills. Now they could find themselves facing even stronger opposition as they try to push through the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (better known as CISPA).
The lawmakers claim that CISPA is designed to help private businesses and government share information more easily. Its critics, however, believe that it would effectively mean an end to internet privacy.
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This is primarily because the companies supporting the proposed legislation include tech giants such as Microsoft and Facebook – both of whom have masses of data on the people who use their products.
According to online activism site Avaaz:
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would allow companies doing business in the US to collect exact records of all of our online activities and hand them over to the US government, without ever notifying us that we are being watched. No warrant, no legal cause and no due process required. To make matters worse, the bill provides the government and corporations with blanket immunity to protect them from being sued for violation of privacy and other illegal actions.
The bill has also faced opposition from the White House. According to Mashable, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that any legislation passing through congress would have to guarantee the privacy of internet users.
She also said that America’s cybersecurity issues could not “be addressed by information sharing alone”. Given that this is more or less the central tenet of CISPA, it seems like the bill could already be dead in the water.
If handing over your privacy to online giants seemed okay before, maybe you should have a second think about it now.
