By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:06pm
Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity passed a bill that will permit greater information sharing for cybersecurity efforts. Called the PRECISE Act, the bill as reported out of the subcommittee, will create an exception to privacy laws so that companies who hold Internet use information (like your browsing history or IP address) can share it in the name of protecting cybersecurity. This would be facilitated by a new public-private entity created to receive, process and distribute the data back out to companies and government agencies who would theoretically use it to protect their own networks.
By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:12pm
This morning, the Senate voted against moving forward on cybersecurity legislation, ending the bill’s chances at final passage.
As we told you earlier this week, the Senate version of the cybersecurity bill (S. 3414, the Cybersecurity Act), was recently significantly improved with several new privacy- oriented changes, including a mandate that information shared with the government under the program go to civilian agencies and not the National Security Agency or other military components.
By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:21pm
As the election summer heats up, Republicans in Congress are making hay with what they claim are selective leaks by the Obama administration, designed to bolster the president’s national security cred. At a Senate Judiciary hearing yesterday, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) went so far as to call for Attorney General Holder’s resignation in part because of the leak issue. While the jury is decidedly out on the merits of these claims, these questions do need to be asked. If there is one thing more dangerous than over-classification of government information, it’s selective declassification for political gain.
By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:28am
Remember the George W. Bush warrantless wiretapping program? The one that was so illegal that Congress had to pass a special law to ensure that no one was prosecuted for it or sued by their customers for facilitating it? And was found by independent reviewers to be pretty pointless anyway? And was then brilliantly codified and written into stone by Congress? And which almost immediately went off the rails, being used to collect all sorts of stuff it wasn’t supposed to? It’s back!
By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:26am
The amendment makes clear that the U.S. is off-limits to indefinite military detention and that military commissions cannot be used for civilians in the United States.
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.
By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:01pm
It's day two of "cyber week" in the House, and there is good news to report: opposition to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is growing.
First, conservatives made a big splash over the last several days by vocalizing their strong opposition to how CISPA violates privacy and conservative values. A letter sent to lead sponsors of the bill from the American Conservative Union, Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Liberty Coalition and more, lay out all the many ways CISPA is bad for privacy from its failure to protect sensitive information to its lack of strict government oversight. Also, Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas) wrote an op-ed for The Hill calling CISPA "Big Brother writ large" which he hopes will go the way of the Stop Online Piracy Act, and issued a statement and YouTube video that says CISPA represents the "latest assault on Internet freedom." And last, but certainly not least, libertarian Campaign for Liberty mobilized its members to contact Congress and urge a 'no' vote.
By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 7:44pm
Today, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee held a hearing on S. 2105, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, sponsored by Sens. Lieberman, Collins, Rockefeller and Feinstein. Introduced earlier this week, this bill delivers the comprehensive reform that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats have been promising since last summer. We will blog a more thorough analysis tomorrow, but short story is that the bill is a mixed bag for civil liberties. The good news is that the bill does not include a kill switch; the bad is that it permits companies to share American internet use data with military agencies like the NSA. So color us shocked that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on the hearing record that the ACLU thinks the bill is "very, very good." Chocolate ice cream is very, very good. The complex, 205-page, ground-breaking rewrite of existing law — well, needs a few changes to really protect privacy. Check back soon for more information.
