The Lady Geek's Topic of the Day: CISPA Defeated

Tales of the Lady Geek

The Lady Geek's Topic of the Day: CISPA Defeated

Greetings dear readers, the Lady Geek here with your news of the technological world.  As I write this, I have just spent an entire day educating a group of teen geeks in internet safety and security.  Education is a rewarding experience that I enjoy immensely, not because of the money (I volunteer) but because one of my core goals as an IT professional from the community has always been to level the playing field for the non technically minded. I do this in the hopes that no one from the community be taken advantage of or 'sold' some unnecessary service again. From Basic Maintenance and repair to Parental controls and false ideas about the 'anonymity' of the internet, I feel it's part of my responsibility to inform and educate the masses about the simplicity of the technological world.

This brings me to today's topic, CISPA and it's defeat in the Senate.  

 

 CISPA:  A Quick Recap:

 

As you may remember from my previous article, CISPA an acronym for Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the government's latest attempt to control our internet rights.  Had it passed, this bill would have allowed for the sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and certain technology and manufacturing companies.  According to the proponents of the bill, CISPA was necessary to deal with threats from China and Russia by prohibiting the government from requiring private sector entities to provide information.  Because of its wording, it also had the potential to become the grandson to the great Nixon phone tapping debacle. 

Looks Innocent to Me

Those against the bill were against it for one small fraction of a sentence that would have changed your computing privacy forever.  "notwithstanding any other provision of the law". That would have meant that the laws currently protecting the average American's rights against such things a illegal wiretapping and search and seizure, among other laws that protect our intimate information like medical records distribution could have been superseded by this bill.

Another big worry was that CISPA would have allowed companies to violate their terms of service by turning over information to the Federal Government without a search warrant.  Under the current laws, it's illegal for any person or company that helps someone 'intercept any wire, oral, or electronic communication' unless specifically authorized by law (a search warrant) would face criminal charges.

The scariest part of CISPA? The fact that it even reached the House of Representatives for a vote with seemingly no fan fare, or formal protests, in fact that it passed the vote from the House with the backing of technology giants such as such as Microsoft and Facebook, and also from such structures as the United States Chamber of Commerce.

So...What Happened?

On Thursday, August 2, 2012, the bill was shot down in a 52 - 46 Senate vote.  This can be considered a victory for Americans everywhere that we should be celebrating as widely and loudly as our Olympic Golds...but this Geek Girl can't help but worry about what the next step is going to be.  What's the magic number of times this particular legislation will be drafted, redrafted and sent before both the House and Senate to be passed? What's the magic number until the internet that we all know, love and take for granted will be permanently changed?

 The Take Away:

Quite frankly, this Lady Geek is suspicious.  I, perhaps rather cynically, believe that since this is an election year no one running wants to have take a chance on one unpopular vote from their part being the reason that they lose the race.  I truly believe, once these elections are over and everyone is secure in whatever position they were running for in the first place, we will see an even greater influx of internet regulatory, censorship and privacy invasion legislature than we've had to face so far.

Eventually, there will come a day when another bill of the likes of SOPA, ACTA, PIPA, and CISPA will come along with enough pretty wording in it to make it all the way to the finish line, thus potentially changing our perceived American liberties and expectations of privacy forever...

Written by MaryAnn Paris

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