While the United States is trying to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) to oversee what citizens are doing on the internet, its two earlier attempts—the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect IP Act (Pipa)—have been thwarted by a public outcry.
“Over 100 members of Congress are backing Cispa that would give private companies and the US government the right to spy on any of us at any time for as long as they want without a warrant. This is the third time the US Congress has tried to attack our internet freedom. But we helped beat Sopa, and Pipa - and now we can beat this new Big Brother law,” writer and lawyer Emma Ruby Sachs said in an email message to this correspondent.
Avaaz, a global web movement that fights for pressing global, regional and national issues, has launched a web signature campaign against the proposed legislation and plans to submit the protest to the US Congress once it gets 2.5 lakh online signatures. It has so far secured the support of about 1.75 lakh netizens.
Ms Sachs has said the global outcry has played a leading role in protecting the internet from governments eager to monitor and control what people do online. Under Cispa, if a cyber threat is suspected, companies that people use to access the internet will have the right to collect information on their activities and share that with the US. The service providers can refuse to notify the users that they are being watched and then use a blanket immunity clause to protect themselves from being sued for the violation of privacy. Internet rights activists, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have described the proposed legislation as an “interference” with basic privacy rights.