Well, I did state a few months ago after the last security bill was voted out that the next one would be worse and here we are.
For people like Mike who are slowly waking up, here are a few facts about this stunning legislation, as well as why the corporates want it.
"While I thought such a thing would never be possible, indeed the final version of CISPA is considerably more dangerous than the previous incarnations. This is because the amendment, put forth by Representative Ben Quayle, an Arizona Republican, actually expanded the scope of CISPA and allows even more reasons for private information to be shared with the government.
The most insane part about this amendment is that, according to
Tech Dirt, it was actually billed as an amendment which would limit the government’s power to obtain personal, private information belonging to Americans.
While previously the government was only able to use information for “cybersecurity” or “national security” purposes (which is already incredibly broad), the amendment actually added three more reasons: investigation and prosecution of alleged cybersecurity crimes, protection of individuals, and protection of children.
Essentially, our Fourth Amendment rights – which have already been whittled away considerably by legislation passed under the guise of fighting terrorism – have been completely eradicated on the internet.
Indeed, the government and their corporate cronies are completely protected from any and all violations of privacy protections, thanks to CISPA, and they are now able to do whatever they please with the information they collect so long as they claim it involves cybersecurity, national security or harm to an individual or a child.
So long as they can claim that it falls under one of those headings, they can circumvent each and every law that would otherwise limit the government’s power.
To make matters even worse, CISPA completely protects the corporations who hand over the information, so long as they
think they’re doing the right thing.
Indeed, the EFF has
pointed out that CISPA “provides ‘good faith’ immunity for using ‘cybersecurity systems’ to obtain information, for not acting on information that a company learns, and for making any decisions based on the information they learn. If a company learns about a security flaw, fails to fix it, and users’ information is misused or stolen, companies cannot be held liable as long as the company acted ‘in good faith’ according to CISPA. Companies “acting in good faith” are also excused from all liability for engaging in potential countermeasures, even if they hurt innocent parties.”
It should hardly be surprising that corporations would grab such an opportunity to have near absolute immunity from legal actions against them.
To make matters even worse, on top of the legal protections already mentioned, CISPA gives companies anti-trust protection in order to make them immune to allegations of collusion on cybersecurity issues.
Furthermore, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are allowed to bypass all privacy laws and share information with each other under the guise of thwarting a cyber attack.
The ISPs are not required to hide
any personal data, including information which could identify the individual, when it
believes a cybersecurity threat has been detected (the key word here is “believes”).
Keep in mind, CISPA is playing a part in fleshing out the already extensive
Big Brother surveillance grid in the United States.
Indeed, combined with
the National Security Agency
