YNOT – Despite the continuing threat of a presidential veto, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act — nicknamed the Internet Patriot Act — is taking another run at the U.S. Congress. More than 30,000 heavily trafficked website, including major social networks, began an online campaign to drum up opposition to the bill earlier this week.
First introduced in November 2011 by U.S. Rep. Michael Rogers [R-MI] and 111 co-sponsors, CISPA proposes a public-private partnership that would allow virtually limitless sharing of internet information between the U.S. government and technology companies. The goal of the bill, according to proponents, is to facilitate official investigation of cyber-attacks and increase security of digital networks and infrastructure.
The original version of CISPA passed a House vote in April 2012 but died in the Senate. In February 2013, Rogers introduced a revised version of the bill as H.R. 624.
The revised bill somewhat limits the definition of cyber-threats, restricts snooping triggered by “theft of intellectual property” to theft of intellectual property related to research and development, and suggests penalties for misuse of CISPA data by government or the private sector.
Corporations including Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, IBM, AT&T, Verizon Communications and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support the bill, saying it would strengthen their ability to pursue intellectual property pirates. Others including Google, Yahoo!, Reddit, Craiglist, Mozilla Corp. and WordPress oppose it, along with a laundry list of privacy and civil liberties advocates including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Internet Defense League and Public Knowledge. Opponents argue the bill incorporates too few limits on the government’s and industry’s license to snoop, potentially violating the Fourth Amendment and putting personal privacy and security at risk.
“CISPA takes away people’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy,” Tiffiny Cheng of Fight for the Future and the Internet Defense League told Mashable. “That’s why internet users are going to do what they’re good at; the Internet is good at fighting for itself and the rights of every user. We’ve been able to tailor our responses to the unique threats and opportunities to free expression and rights online, and we keep winning.”
According to Cheng and other internet privacy activists, CISPA would create a gigantic online wiretapping network, giving Google, Facebook and internet service providers, for example, the right to watch users’ every online move and turn over to federal agencies anything they think might be relevant to cybersecurity.
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Erika Icon contributed to this report.[/SIZE]
