Creator of the Internet Says CISPA Violates User Privacy

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
April 19, 2012

 

 

 

The US government is pushing through the cybersecurity bill known as CISPA. The goal of CISPA is to aid corporations in defense against hackers that threaten to steal business secrets, customer financial information and reek total havoc on computer systems.
This bill allows corporations and governments to block or modify any communications you make. A company like Google, Facebook, Twitter, or ATT could capture your emails and text messages, send copies to one another and to the government, and alter those communications or stop them from getting to their destination if it falls into their definition of cybersecurity threats.
This vague claim of “cyber threat’ is loosely defined in the text of the bill as:
(2) CYBER THREAT INTELLIGENCE- The term `cyber threat intelligence’ means information in the possession of an element of the intelligence community directly pertaining to a vulnerability of, or threat to, a system or network of a government or private entity, including information pertaining to the protection of a system or network from–
(A) efforts to degrade, disrupt, or destroy such system or network; or
(B) theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information.
Censoring speech when a government or corporation does not approve of what you have said, written, text, is the purpose of this bill.
Part (A) allows a government to come after an individual for participating in hactivist activities.
Part (B) makes file-sharing a federal offence.
Richard Clarke, former government cybersecurity czar, suggests the “Customs Authority, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could inspect what enters and exits the United States in cyberspace . . . And under the Intelligence Act, the president could issue a finding that would authorize agencies to scan Internet traffic outside the United States and seize sensitive files stolen from within our borders.”
Now the inventor of the World Wide Web is speaking out about the dangers of CISPA and endorsing the repeal of the bill through the Congress for approval.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, advisor to the UK government on how to make public data more accessible has stated that CISPA too much power to the ability to unlawfully survey users of the internet. He calls it the “destruction of human rights” that would leave private information vulnerable to theft and distortion by “corrupt officials”.
Berners-Lee stated that:
“The amount of control you have over somebody if you can monitor internet activity is amazing . . . You get to know every detail, you get to know, in a way, more intimate details about their life than any person that they talk to because often people will confide in the internet as they find their way through medical websites … or as an adolescent finds their way through a website about homosexuality, wondering what they are and whether they should talk to people about it.”
Berners-Lee created the system that allows website and links to be formed.
The UK government announced that GCHQ would be used to assist in monitoring all communication on social media sites like Facebook, Skype calls and the analysis of emails that the government randomly intercepted.
“The idea that we should routinely record information about people is obviously very dangerous. It means that there will be information around which could be stolen, which can be acquired through corrupt officials or corrupt operators, and [could be] used, for example, to blackmail people in the government or people in the military. We open ourselves out, if we store this information, to it being abused,” says Berners-Lee.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has strong reservations about CISPA. They released a statement saying:
“…There are almost no restrictions on what can be collected and how it can be used, provided a company can claim it was motivated by “cybersecurity purposes.” That means a company like Google, Facebook, Twitter, or ATT could intercept your emails and text messages, send copies to one another and to the government, and modify those communications or prevent them from reaching their destination if it fits into their plan to stop cybersecurity threats…”
Government should not be able to gather this much data on internet users without a purpose. It creates a police state with unimaginable control over citizens.
How the data is collected, stored and used is of grave concern to those who have been integral in the creation of the internet.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes