CYBERSECURITY: After you read this, you'll say, “Obama is right!” #tlot Retweet
I wrote a letter to the President telling him to veto the CISA bill if it comes to his desk.
THEN, I sent this similar letter to my Representative and Senators telling them to oppose it using DownsizeDC.org's Hands Off the Internet Campaign.
I think President Obama was on to something in his April 15, 2012 Statement of Administration Principles. There, he said that a cybersecurity law must preserve “Americans' privacy, data confidentiality, and civil liberties and recognize the civilian nature of cyberspace.”
CISA fails on all counts. It will end up being to cybersecurity what the TSA is to air travel.
PRIVACY: CISA flouts current privacy law. It allows companies to monitor our Internet activities.
DATA CONFIDENTIALITY: If a cybersecurity threat arises, there are inadequate safeguards to prevent irrelevant personal data from being shared.
CIVIL LIBERTIES: Law enforcement is permitted to use this personal data to investigate non-cyber crimes.
CIVILIAN CYBERSPACE: If any government agency accesses my personal information, the NSA gets it too. The NSA is a military, NOT a civilian agency.
But I want to be clear. I'm against CISA for other reasons as well…
* I don't trust the federal government to keep my data private when it can't even keep its own personnel files safe!
* Companies should be liable for mishandling my personal information.
* Decentralized, innovative, free-market cybersecurity measures would be far more effective than federal control.
CISA is a bad bill. I demand you oppose it!
If you agree, you may copy-and-paste, edit, or compose a letter of your own through DownsizeDC.org's Educate the Powerful System.
Jim Babka is President of DownsizeDC.org.