The United States senate has just passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a controversial new bill. The legislation was voted in with an overwhelming 74 to 21 majority vote.
The bill aims to help big corporations share data on potential cybersecurity breaches with the Department of Homeland Security. In the wake of huge corporate spy attacks like last year's Sony Pictures hack, such a law seems like a necessary thing right?
Well, the bills detractors say that CISA will only make it easier for big companies to share private information with the government; using the whole system as tool to funnel sensitive data to the NSA and FBI.
Gizmodo's Kate Knibbs paints a picture of who exactly can see the data once the corporations hand it over to the government.
'If CISA becomes law, the Department of Homeland Security will share the data it funnels from tech companies with the National Security Agency as soon as it comes in.' she writes.
'The DHS will also immediately share all the data with the Department of Defense, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, so any information companies pass along will be fair game to get pored over by multiple government agencies.'
The bill has been slammed by many prominent privacy activists. Edward Snowden joined anti-CISA lawmaker Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon in an 'ask me anything session' on Reddit to discuss the bills flaws. Snowden writes:
"What it allows is for the companies you interact with every day-visibly, like Facebook, or invisibly, like AT&T-to indiscriminately share private records about your interactions and activities with the government, CISA allows private companies to immediately share a perfect record of your private activities the instant you click a link, log in, make a purchase, and so on-and the government with reward for doing it by granting them a special form of legal immunity for their cooperation."
