CISPA

Also known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, CISPA would create a loophole in all existing privacy laws, allowing companies to share Internet users' data with the National Security Agency, part of the Department of Defense, and the biggest spy agency in the world — without any legal oversight.

04/03/2013
CISPA Explainer

CISPA Explainer #2: With Whom Can Information Be Shared?

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:20am

We've written extensively about CISPA over the last year, but since the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is set to mark the bill up next week, and the full House to vote on it the week after that, we're dissecting its shortcomings. Information sharing isn't offensive per se; it's really a question of what can be shared, with whom, and what corporations and government agencies can do with it. Yesterday we told you what could be shared (read: your personally identifiable information) and today we discuss where that information ends up.

Read More»
04/15/2013
CISPA

Smashing Success: Thousands of ACLU Supporters Petition President to Veto CISPA, Get Full Page Ad in Politico

By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Kaitlyn Newman, Campaigner, ACLU Action at 5:14pm

You did it! In the two months since Reps. Rogers (R-Mich.) and Ruppersberger (D-Md.) reintroduced their privacy-busting bill CISPA, 49,513 (and counting) ACLU supporters signed one of our biggest petitions of all time, urging President Obama to protect Americans' privacy and civil liberties and veto CISPA!

To make sure members of Congress hear your passionate plea as well, we've printed a full-page ACLU Action ad opposing CISPA in today's Politico – the go-to newspaper for the who's who of Capitol Hill! Hopefully, the president and your legislators caught a glimpse of the compelling graphic while they drank their morning coffee.

Read More»
04/16/2012
CISPA

Kicking off "Stop Cyber Spying Week"

By Mandy Simon at 12:00pm

Today we're launching a weeklong campaign called "Stop Cyber Spying Week" to draw attention to the massive civil liberties problems in H.R. 3523, better known as CISPA.

Read More»
03/19/2013
CISPA

With CISPA, "It's all just a little bit of history repeating..."

By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:48pm

The Propellerheads may have been talking about fashion trends when they sang that "to me it seems quite clear that it's all just a little bit of history repeating." But that sentiment rings loud and true today when talking about the privacy-busting cybersecurity bill CISPA.

Leaders of the House Intel Committee reintroduced CISPA with the same privacy flaws as last year. While they suggested at its unveiling that they worked with the privacy community and addressed our concerns, they didn't. This is the same bill, with the same problems.

Read More»
02/10/2013
CISPA

CISPA Claws Back to Life

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:54pm

It's baa-aaack.

The House cybersecurity bill that allows the National Security Agency (NSA) and the military to collect your private internet records is scheduled for an encore appearance on Wednesday. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) will reintroduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which news reports say will be the same bill that passed the House of Representatives last year.

Read More»
04/27/2012
Cybersecurity

Keep Domestic Cybersecurity Efforts in Civilian Hands

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 8:37am

Last night the House of Representatives passed HR 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. We’ve written about the many privacy problems with this bill, but here I would like to focus on one of its biggest and most fundamental flaws: it empowers the military, including agencies like the NSA, to collect the internet records of Americans’ everyday internet use.

Read More»
03/15/2013
Cybersecurity

Intel Officials Admit "Cyber Pearl Harbor" Unlikely Soon, Agree Cyber Should be Kept in Civilian Hands

By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:27pm

Privacy protection, and the debate about whether to house information-sharing programs in a civilian or military agency, dominated three congressional hearings on cybersecurity this week.

In separate hearings Tuesday in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee, leaders of the intelligence community called cyberattacks the greatest threat to the U.S. at this time—but admitted that the kinds of catastrophic attacks imagined by reporters and cyber experts were only a "remote" possibility in the near future.

Read More»
04/25/2012
CISPA

In Advance of CISPA Vote, Congress Needs to Hear From You

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:53pm

Call your representatives today and urge them not to sacrifice the civil liberties of Internet users in any cybersecurity legislation.

Read More»
04/25/2012
CISPA

CISPA: It Ain't Cyber-Pretty

By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 12:38pm

Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled to begin debating the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, authored by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.). In the name of cybersecurity, the legislation threatens to blow a hole through every privacy law on the books and allow companies to share customers' private information with the US military. It's not pretty.

Read More»
04/16/2012
On the Agenda

On the Agenda: Week of April 16 – 20, 2012

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 11:29am

Congress is back in session, so we've got a busy week ahead.

Today, the ACLU, along with several other groups, is launching a weeklong campaign called "Stop Cyber Spying Week" to draw attention to the massive civil liberties problems in H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, better known as CISPA. CISPA is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives next week. Tomorrow ACLU Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson will speak at a House Hill Briefing called "The False Choice: Cybersecurity vs. Civil Liberties."

Read More»

Related

interactive

5/9/2013
Patents on Human Genes: A Patient's Perspective

press

5/3/2013
The 10 Big Problems with E-Verify

video

5/3/2013
Who Owns Your Body?

case

5/3/2013
Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics

case

4/10/2013
Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program v. Drug Enforcement Administration
Statistics image