CISA, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, encourages companies to spy on their customers and hand the data to the government, in secret, with full immunity (including immunity for launching cyberattacks at users).
All along, CISA's advocates have downplayed the concerns of privacy advocates, saying that all the privacy issues would be ironed out in friendly amendments before the bill became law. Now, as Congress sets out to win votes by playing Mr-Tough-Guy-Terror-Fighter, they're poised to pass a bill with no privacy protections to speak of.
Our only hope is Representative Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, who is being aggressively lobbied to yank pro-privacy language from the bill before it gets out of committee.
Your help is needed! Please send McCaul a request to stay strong and do the right thing:
But hope is not lost. Representative Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, can still ensure that the hard-fought privacy protections make it into the final text. Unfortunately, Congressional leadership and members of the Intelligence Committee are putting intense pressure on Representative McCaul to strip out these necessary safeguards.
We're asking the EFF community to support Representative McCaul, and urge him to stand strong in defend of liberty and privacy. Please tweet to the Representative:
.@RepMcCaul please stand strong on cyber. You're our last hope against Intel Committee attempts to eviscerate our privacy. #StopCISA
Tell Representative McCaul: Stand Strong on CISA
[Rainey Reitman/EFF]
