Democrats call for stronger CISPA privacy protections

Democrats call for stronger CISPA privacy protections

Tue, 2012-04-24 07:28 AM
By: Mark Rockwell

Almost 20 Democrats joined the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee in backing a potential amendment they said would bolster privacy protections in a Republican-backed cyber security bill due for consideration the week of April 23.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member of the committee, and other Democratic House members sent a letter to Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger (D-MD), the chairman and ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, respectively, about their privacy concerns in H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA). Thompson vowed to introduce amendments addressing those privacy concerns later in the week of April 23.

Thompson noted that Rogers and Ruppersberger were putting an amendment together ahead of the full House consideration of the legislation on April 26 or 27 and urged them to strengthen privacy protections.

The Democrats said the Rogers and Ruppersberger should address “the real and serious privacy concerns voiced by concerned Americans, privacy advocacy groups, and colleagues in Congress.”

In addition to Thompson, seventeen other Democrats signed the letter, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)

They expressed concerns about three areas concerning how data concerning Internet activity will be shared, from what information will be noted, who in the federal government -- including the intelligence community -- would be able to access the information and the purpose and manner in which the information would be used.

They said language in the legislation is overly broad and vague, adding that without specifics, the bill would, for the first time, grant non-civilian federal agencies, like the National Security Agency, unrestricted access to citizens’ Internet activities and to use that information for “virtually any purpose.”

Democrats call for stronger CISPA privacy protections | Government Security News