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futurejournalismproject:

CISPA Is Not Dead

Visit Fight For The Future and CISPA Is Back for an overview and actions you can take, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for background on the bill since it passed the House and what happens next as it moves to the Senate.

Meantime, the White House responded to an anti-CISPA petition signed by over 100,000 people with — in part — the following:

The White House issued a veto threat for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) on April 16, because the legislation did not fully address our core concerns (especially the protection of privacy). Even though a bill went on to pass the House of Representatives and includes some important improvements over previous versions, this legislation still doesn’t adequately address our fundamental concerns…

…There is broad consensus on the need for more threat-related information sharing — including among the leading privacy advocates we regularly engage on the issue. The essential question on which people across the spectrum disagree isn’t if we can share cybersecurity information and preserve the principles of privacy and liberty that make the United States a free and open society — but how.

Related: Here’s something to chew on, via Wired:

A secretive federal court last year approved all of the 1,856 requests to search or electronically surveil people within the United States “for foreign intelligence purposes,” the Justice Department reported this week.

The report, released Tuesday to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, provides a brief glimpse into the caseload of what is known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. None of its decisions are public.

The 2012 figures represent a 5 percent bump from the prior year, when no requests were denied either.

Image: Via CISPA Is Back. Select to embiggen.

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dendroica:

sleepyblacksheep:

ikenbot:

Stop CISPA: Save the Internet from the U.S.

Right now, the U.S. Congress is sneaking in a new law that gives them big brother spy powers over the entire web — and they’re hoping the world won’t notice. We helped stop their Net attack last time, let’s do it again.

Over 100 Members of Congress are backing a bill (CISPA) that would give private companies and the US government the right to spy on any of us at any time for as long as they want without a warrant. This is the third time the US Congress has tried to attack our Internet freedom. But we helped beat SOPA, and PIPA — and now we can beat this new Big Brother law.

Our global outcry has played a leading role in protecting the Internet from governments eager to monitor and control what we do online. Let’s stand together once again — and beat this law for good. Sign the petition then forward to everyone who uses the Internet! [Click]

SIGN IT

Or contact your representatives through EFF.

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pachanka:

It’s time to get pissed. The U.S. law that would turn Google, Facebook, and Twitter into legally immune government spies just passed the House.

We expected CISPA to pass; that’s why this spring, we’re going to organize the largest online privacy protest in history to make sure CISPA is gone for good.

And, in response to (Republican) Rep. Mike Rogers’ accusation that CISPA opponents are just “14 year-old tweeter[s] in the basement”, we thought we’d also challenge Rep. Rogers to get on live national television and debate a 14 year-old in a basement on CISPA. The search for the 14 year-old begins. Are you or do you know a 14 year-old who could totally school a congressman on this issue?

This bill affects everyone — not just U.S. citizens. Anyone with a Facebook account could now have their data shipped directly to the U.S. government. That’s why Internet users overwhelmingly oppose this bill. Over 1.5 million people signed petitions against it. But Congress didn’t listen.

Does this remind you of something? Yep, this is the exact position we were in with SOPA last year. Then the Internet rose up and we made history with the SOPA strike.

Join the largest online privacy protest in history to make sure CISPA goes the same route as SOPA and doesn’t become the law that breaks the 4th Amendment. Are you in?

CISPA threatens our most basic rights. Privacy is important not just for our security but for our rights to freedom of expression. The giant tech companies that stood with Internet users against SOPA are not going to help us this time (but some of the large sites like Mozilla, Imgur, and Reddit are all against CISPA and we love them).

Only a massive grassroots outcry will stop this bill. We’re starting to build the tools. But we need your help.

Can you share the flyer below on social media? And tell everyone you know to sign up to join the protest?

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daunt:

tumblebuggie:

shycustis:

Do you remember SOPA? The bill that would give government the right to spy on internet activity without warrant, and let them censor “unwanted” sites by blocking people’s access to them?

Meet its twin. But this time it’s all the more frightening; the House has passed it despite Obama’s threats to veto. And by an alarmingly large margin, at that. CISPA threatens the US constitution’s guarantees of due privacy and free speech, permitting any government agency to access and transfer of vast amounts of data- from internet records to even the content of personal e-mails, and all without obtaining a warrant.

What’s even more disgusting than this bill actually making through the House is some of the arguments used to help it’s passage, and comments made by one of the bill’s biggest supporters admitting the bill helps big business while insulting opposers (whose is also speculated to have personal reasons for wanting CISPA made into law).

This threatens every element of your online presence. From personal emails to general activity, any government agency will have the ability to go fishing without consequence.

Please, PLEASE, sign the following petitions. You don’t even have to be a US citizen to sign most of them or act against CISPA, and please keep in mind that if this shit flies in America, who knows what country might use its example to do it, too.

Petition: Avaaz: Save the Internet from the US
(you don’t have to be a US citizen to sign this)

Petition: Sites Not Spies
(you don’t have to be a US citizen to sign this)

Petition: CISPA is Back: Write Congress

Petition: Tell Mike Rogers more that 14-year-olds oppose CISPA
(you don’t have to be a US citizen to sign this)

Twitter: Tweet @RepMikeRogers with your age
Twitter: Tweet @BarackObama and tell him to veto CISPA
Twitter: Tweet reps like @RepDelBene, @GovHankJohnson, @KeithEllison and @GovGaryJohnson and thanks them for acting against CISPA. Look for other reps that have spoken against it, and thank them.

Call your reps: and tell them you strongly oppose the bill. You can look up your reps using the form on the lower portion of this page.

Resource: Fight for the Future

Reblog: This and other posts like it to raise awareness of this threat to internet freedom and privacy.

I will be posting more petitions and resources as I become aware of them.

it’s baaack D:

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. :(

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wilkinsky:

#CISPA #privacy remember when you had a wedgie over Instagram’s “terms of service” update? This is like an update to THE INTERNET’s “Terms Of Service.” Understand?

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Obama Issues CISPA Veto Threat, But Vote Still Starts WEDNESDAY. Email Congress Here -- ASAP

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

UPDATE: President Obama just threatened to veto CISPA!  He echoes our privacy concerns, saying legislation must “(1) carefully safeguard privacy and civil liberties; (2) preserve the long-standing, respective roles and missions of civilian and intelligence agencies”.

Meanwhile, here’s what the bill’s sponsor is saying about the opposition, according to Hill reporter Brendan Sasso:

@BrendanSasso: Rogers says Silicon Valley CEOs support #CISPA.

** Describes opposition as 14 year olds in their basement. **

Demand Progress members have sent more than 150,000 emails to policy makers in opposition to CISPA this year — and it’s starting to work.  But voting in the House of Representatives is still set to start (Wednesday).

In anticipation of a full House vote in the House on Wednesday, industry giant IBM has sent nearly 200 senior execs to Washington to lobby in support of CISPA. 

And their intentions couldn’t be more clear. CISPA would empower them to share your private data with the military without a warrant — and they wouldn’t hesitate to do so.

Chris Padilla, IBM’s VP of governmental affairs told TheHill.com that IBM and other corporations ”should be able to work directly and share information directly”  with the National Security Agency “because that’s where the expertise is.“ 

On Wednesday, CISPA 2.0 is up for a full vote in the House of Representatives.  Please email your lawmakers to tell them to VOTE NO!

(This information comes from an email from “Demand Progress”.)

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CISPA passess committee, heads to House vote

8manderz8:

The controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed a closed-door vote by the House Intelligence Committee by a wide margin and will now head to the House floor for a vote. Privacy advocates have decried the cybersecurity legislation — a barely modified version of the bill that failed in the Senate last year — which would give businesses and the federal government legal protection to share online data.

The Hill reported that a number of amendments supported by the bill’s sponsors were approved during markup, including a change that would require the government to remove personal information from “cyber threat” data they receive from private companies; and another change that would allow the government to use data from private companies for broad “national security purposes.” The final text of the bill heading to the House floor has not been made public. Meanwhile the White House has yet to respond to a “We the People” petition against CISPA, which has garnered over 100,000 online signatures (the number required to demand a response from the administration.) The EFF and the ACLU are, as noted here, working in conjunction to rally further opposition to the bill…… …. 

Yeah guys this is still a thing even though everyone stopped reblogging it.

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Virginia Assembly Votes to Deny Citizens Ability to Purchase Private Coverage of Abortion Care

rhrealitycheck:

Nothing says “small government” like forbidding people to use their own money to pay for legal services.

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nimhrat:

fyeahcolinandryan:

aiffe:

Petition to stop CISPA.

I promise this’ll be the last time I’ll post something about this on here. But if you need a reason to sign it, take a look.

Seriously.

We still need 20,000 signatures before friday of this upcoming week. But then I guess you plebs don’t care if the government and companies track your every move and use any and all private data they want to.

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youranonnews:

Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist

Highlights:

A flyer designed by the FBI and the Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting in internet cafes lists basic tools used for online privacy as potential signs of terrorist activity. […] In fact, the flyer recommends that anyone “overly concerned about privacy” or attempting to “shield the screen from view of others” should be considered suspicious and potentially engaged in terrorist activities.

[…]

Viewing any content related to “military tactics” including manuals or “revolutionary literature”is also considered a potential indicator of terrorist activity.  This would mean that viewing a number of websites, including the one you are on right now, could be construed by a hapless employee as an highly suspicious activity potentially linking you to terrorism.

[…]

However, many of the activities described in the document are basic practices of any individual concerned with security or privacy online.

From the flyer itself, suspicious persons are people who:

(Wow this targets just about every socially anxious, poor, overloaded, or private person ever.)

And activities on computer indicate:

(Guess I’m a terrorist now for using KeyScrambler or LastPass, or for only talking to people in games we happen to share.)

And they use computers to:

(A tip for the future: Don’t use Internet Cafes if you are on vacation or lost, want news, need help with something you’ve purchased or something you use at work, need to buy something for the farm…)