CISPA, the cyber-security bill that passed in the House that would allow companies to “voluntarily” hand over everything the government asks for them about their clients while indemnifying them against any legal action taken by the parties whose privacy they just violated, goes to a vote in the Senate soon. Only nobody seems to know who supports and who opposes the bill. The Senate is collectively playing this one undeniably close to their chests, and the media’s pretty well dead silent on it, AGAIN.
Continue reading “CISPA goes to a super-quiet senate vote soon”
warrantless wiretapping
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CISPA marches onward with precious little fanfare or opposition
What happens when the government wants to fire a salvo in the copyright war that will, as a function of its broadside, accidentally break the foundation of the internet? Everyone gets upset, from the common folk to the mass media — because, see, everyone uses the internet. Thus, SOPA and PIPA died.
What happens when a whole lot of companies and a whole lot of House representatives want to push a bill that serves as another (more stealthy) salvo in that same copyright war, which indemnifies companies against being sued for any privacy violation that happens when the government demands personal information about customers without a warrant, allowing a completely legal totalitarian Big Brother state that extends far beyond the borders of the state in question? Apparently nothing — because, see, evidently nobody gives a shit about privacy.
Continue reading “CISPA marches onward with precious little fanfare or opposition”
Stop CISPA. NOW. It goes to vote MONDAY.
Here’s an infographic that explains succinctly why this matters. Facebook supports this bill, and has evidently been stripping links to information about CISPA from people’s messages.
Total internet surveillance, without legal recourse. Facebook and other big tech companies are supporting giving information to the government without warrants, so that when they cooperate with the government they can’t be held accountable to the users whose privacy they violated.
If this goes down, my Facebook account will be purged of everything I can purge, and will go dark permanently. Not that it’ll matter, because if the law is passed, using any server geolocated in the US is tantamount to saying “yes, US government, you can have all my personal information.”
Stephanie has some form letters you could use to rally your congresscritters against this nonsense.
Continue reading “Stop CISPA. NOW. It goes to vote MONDAY.”
Meet the new internet power grab, same as the old one.
Ladies and gentlemen, I cordially introduce you to the new Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, sponsored by Mike Rogers (R-MI).
I suspect that in name and in deed, it will remind you a great deal of SOPA and PIPA, the two bills we barely defeated by shutting down half the internet in protest. Only, see, this one is actually WORSE. If you can even believe it.
So, say the government thought you were discussing a cybersecurity threat or IP theft — such as illegal file sharing somehow related to cybersecurity — on Facebook. The bill would not force Facebook to hand you over to the feds, yet CISPA does make it so that Facebook will be completely unrestricted (say, by your rights) to cooperate with Homeland Security to the fullest extent.
The so-called “cybersecurity bill” lets the US government into any online communication if it believes there is reason to suspect cyber crime, or a threat of intellectual property theft. The bill defines “cybersecurity systems” and “cyber threat information” as anything related to protecting networks from:
‘(A) efforts to degrade, disrupt, or destroy such system or network; or ‘(B) theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.
“Cybersecurity” is not actually defined in the bill.
Emphasis mine. And if I could make it blink, I would.
Continue reading “Meet the new internet power grab, same as the old one.”
SCOC ruling: Harper’s warrantless internet wiretapping unconstitutional
The Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark ruling that emergency wiretapping without a warrant is unconstitutional — which could pave the way for a new federal law that better safeguards privacy rights — is being used by critics to revive their attacks on the Harper government’s controversial Internet surveillance bill.
“It’s a huge blow to the Conservative’s Internet snooping bill,” NDP justice critic Jack Harris told Postmedia News.
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Canada about to lose any vestige of internet privacy
Despite how pro-privacy the Harper government has claimed to be, with the destruction of the long gun registry out of privacy concerns, it is absolutely no surprise to me that they’re total hypocrites when it comes to actual privacy concerns, like warrantless information-gathering from ISPs.
Suppose you read an online article – not this one, hopefully – that makes you so angry you post a comment under your online pseudonym, “Irate Canuck,” saying that someone ought to shoot the author. The police notice.
Under legislation that the Conservatives will soon be introducing, the police could order your Internet service provider to hand over your personal information so that they could have a talk with you.
If they are sufficiently concerned, they could get a warrant and begin tracking your every move. You really should have turned off the GPS on your smart phone.
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