Freedom of Speech Privacy

House Passes CISPA, Tell Senate to Save Your Privacy!

Today, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by a vote of 248 to 168. Unfortunately, which of the Massachusetts delegation voted for CISPA is unknown, though Congressmen Markey and Olver have come out against it.  UPDATE: The entire Massachusetts US House delegation voted against CISPA according to this final vote tally.

TechDirt reports that the final bill is even worse than the one proposed. In addition to allowing the government to use information for cybersecurity or national security purposes, it also allows the government to get data for the investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crime, protection of individuals, and protection of children. CISPA isn’t a cybersecurity bill at all. It is a spy on Americans bill.

This bill would obliterate our 4th Amendment rights on-line. Under CISPA, the government can ask your ISP to `voluntarily’ hand over everything you send over their network: your emails, downloads, web searches, account passwords. No warrant would be required, no judge would have to review their request to ensure that they have a reasonable reason for their request. Once the data is in the hands of one agency, it can end up being sent to any government agency or even a private company. Any company that hands over your data will not be held liable for its misuse. If you doubt that ISPs will willingly hand over your private Internet traffic, then please review the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.

If this bill is passed in the Senate and not vetoed by President Obama, potentially anything you do on-line can be accessed by the government. While President Obama has said he will veto CISPA, he also said that about NDAA, and he signed that bill.

We have to kill this bill in the Senate! Please call or email both Massachusetts Senators and tell them to oppose CISPA and any other bills like it. The privacy you save may be your own.

Scott Brown
(202) 224-4543
http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailscottbrown

John Kerry
(202) 224-2742
http://kerry.senate.gov/contact/

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