House Passes CISPA, the Privacy Eroding Cybersecurity Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives today passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act despite a veto threat issued earlier this week by the White House. The legislation, which passed by a 288-127 vote, allows companies to share customers’ personal information with any company or any government entity, including the National Security Agency. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the legislation.

“CISPA is an extreme proposal that allows companies that hold our very sensitive information to share it with any company or government entity they choose, even directly with military agencies like the NSA, without first stripping out personally identifiable information,” said Michelle Richardson, a legislative counsel at the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. “We will work with Congress to make sure that the next version of information sharing legislation unequivocally resolves this issue, as well as tightens immunity provisions and protects personal information. Cybersecurity can be done without sacrificing Americans’ privacy online.”

The Senate, which has not introduced cybersecurity legislation for the 113th Congress, is reportedly working on a bill now.

For a detailed analysis of CISPA, please visit:
aclu.org/blog/tag/cispa-explainer

For more information on the ACLU’s work on cybersecurity, please visit:
aclu.org/cybersecurity