CISPA - They are coming for your internet

[CuteOldGuy]

Passed with Republican support, the Cispa bill clears the House.

http://www.freedominfonetwork.org/pr...ite-opposition

If you are counting on the Republicans to protect your liberty, you are sadly mistaken.

[i'va biggen]

Guess we will have to be careful what we say about anyone anywhere.

[Sexyeccentric1]

Looks like the President plans to veto it.. see link

http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/t...s-ahead-737188

Apparently it is the republicans pushing this: "The White House believes the government ought to control the Internet, government ought to set standards, and government ought to take care of everything that's needed for cybersecurity," Boehner told reporters. "They're in a camp all by themselves." Boehner also defended CISPA as a common-sense step in preventing cyber attacks.

[Sexyeccentric1]

Also, the main reason companies are supporting CISPA is because it takes the pressure to regulate users off the private company. SOPA required private companies to keep track of what its users were doing and held private companies liable for its users. CISPA transfers that role and responsibility over to a government entity. Effectively, it makes it so a company cannot be sued by a user for handing their information over to the law.
Under the CISPA bill, "access to any information regarding a 'cyber threat' is granted to the government, privacy security agencies and private companies."

• CISPA's definition of a cyber threat: Efforts to disrupt or destroy government or private systems or networks.
• Theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.
• Misappropriation: In this context, it means "wrongful borrowing."
• Intellectual property: Anything from Photoshop to the latest Nickelback album.

Here's where CISPA's vague language leaves room for abuse:

• The government, private security agencies and private companies acting in "good faith": "maybe you did it."
• Can share "cyber threat" information equals sharing your info with other companies, private agencies and the government with 100 percent anonymity means they don't have to tell you they're doing it.
• Immunity to legal action: You can't take action even if someone made a mistake with your info.
• Any existing legal protections of user privacy will be usurped by CISPA. The bill clearly states that the information may be shared "notwithstanding any other provision of the law."

[Sexyeccentric1]

Helen A.S. Popkin
Web founder: Government snooping is a 'destruction of human rights'


This week, as U.S. activists urge Internet users to protest CISPA, the cybersecurity bill moving through Congress, an Internet founder spoke out against a similar bill under consideration in the UK.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sir Tim Berners-Leesaid the British government's plan to monitor the Internet activity of everyone in the country would be a "destruction of human rights." Berners-Lee, who engineered link communication on the World Wide Web (aka HTML), also advises the UK government on making public data accessible. While he supports making government records available, he says fears over the government collecting personal data "keep me up most at night."


Announced on April 1, the UK government's plans for Internet surveillance include offering "law enforcement agencies unprecedented access to private communications," Engadget noted earlier this month. "British cellphone operators and ISPs will be required to harvest packet data -- containing the parties to all calls, emails and social media communication, as well as the time and duration of each message." Specifics of the plan are scheduled to be announced on May 9.
This is too much information, and too much power, Berners-Lee told the Guardian. "The amount of control you have over somebody if you can monitor Internet activity is amazing," he said.

"The idea that we should routinely record information about people is obviously very dangerous. It means that there will be information around which could be stolen, which can be acquired through corrupt officials or corrupt operators, and [could be] used, for example, to blackmail people in the government or people in the military. We open ourselves out, if we store this information, to it being abused."

Berners-Lee's interview is part of the Guardian's seven-day special series, Battle for the Internet. The series runs concurrently with a campaign by U.S. advocacies, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation, which urges Internet users to contact Congress to speak out against this Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

Similar to the UK government's Internet surveillance plans, CISPA would allow ISPs, social networks such as Facebook, cellphone providers to share user information with the U.S. government and associated private parties without a search warrant or any other judicial oversite. What's more, neither the government nor the service providers are required to tell targeted individuals that their personal info is being investigated or why.
Berners-Lee also spoke out against CISPA, saying it's "threatening the rights of people in America, and effectively rights everywhere, because what happens in America tends to affect people all over the world," he told the Guardian. "Even though the SOPA and PIPA acts were stopped by huge public outcry, it's staggering how quickly the U.S. government has come back with a new, different, threat to the rights of its citizens."

-- via The Guardian