CISPA: Big Brother’s best friend forever

Despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth in this and other corners of the InterWebs, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) yesterday, a day earlier than expected.

Though not before our fine legislative members spent seven hours grandstanding for C-SPAN and debating a few choice amendments. The good news is that legislators removed language that defined “cyber threats” as including the theft of intellectual property. The RIAA and MPAA will have to wait another day for their little gift from Congress.

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The bad news is that the House refused to even consider amendments that would strengthen the bill’s weak privacy provisions, and it broadened the scope of the bill from cyber security to virtually any use of the Internet that could cause “physical or psychological harm” to minors or threaten the national security of the United States. As TechDirt’s Leigh Beadon notes:

The government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a “cyber security crime.” Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all.

For Cnet’s Declan McCullagh, the controversy over CISPA boils down to one word: “notwithstanding.” Because the text of CISPA declares that its authority applies “notwithstanding any other provision of law,” CISPA then trumps any other law that might protect your medical records, school transcripts, video rental histories, and the like.

It works kind of like this: Notwithstanding any laws prohibiting grand theft, I’m going to steal your car. Notwithstanding your right to physical safety, I’m going to punch you in the nose. Notwithstanding the U.S. Constitution, I’m going to drag you out of your bed in the middle of the night, put you in shackles, and change your forwarding address to Gitmo for the next 10 years.

However, the House did amend CISPA to keep private companies from sharing records detailing your library habits, tax returns, and any guns you’ve bought. Apparently reading, shooting, and paying taxes are not threats to cyber security.

CISPA isn’t law — yet. It still has to go to the Senate, where it could simply wither and die or be combined with several other competing cyber security bills (more likely the latter). And the Obama White House has threatened to veto it, though it’s unclear if that threat still holds for an amended version of the bill.

The fight continues. But make no mistake: This is the most important digital legislation we’ve seen in a long time, possibly ever. As the ACLU notes:

Although a carefully crafted information sharing program that strictly limits the information to be shared and includes robust privacy safeguards could be an effective approach to cyber security, CISPA lacks such protections for individual rights. CISPA’s “information sharing” regime allows the transfer of vast amounts of data, including sensitive information like Internet use history or the content of emails, to any agency in the government including military and intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency or the Department of Defense Cyber Command.

Big Brother will soon be following you on Twitter. When our only protection is the hope that Facebook or AT&T or Comcast won’t voluntarily roll over and give Uncle Sam all our information, then we have no protection at all.

How does CISPA sound to you now? Weigh in below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.

This article, “CISPA: Big Brother’s best friend forever,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter.