Bad Cybersecurity Bill Dead for Now

Some good news on the privacy front. For now, the plug has been pulled on the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in April but short-circuited in the Senate at the end of last week.

As described by the Huffington Post, CISPA "would give businesses and the federal government legal protection to share information on cyber threats with each other to enhance the nation's cybersecurity. The bill comes at a time of increased concern over hacking threats at home and from China."

Basically, CISPA would have allowed private Internet companies to give the government all your information — emails, tweets, text messages, phone calls, websites you visited, Facebook postings — without a warrant. Doing so seems a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."

The Internet and cellphones didn't exist when the Bill of Rights was written, of course. But the founders still included new technologies and unforeseen circumstances under "effects." The founders wanted to prevent the authorities from spying on people without a warrant, as they had suffered under the British before they revolted in 1776.

Last year, the Senate was working on a different, better version of CISPA that included more privacy protections.

But this year's version from the House clearly was objectionable. We don't always agree with the American Civil Liberties Union, but they have been strong all along on privacy. Said Michelle Richardson, ACLU legislative council, "CISPA is too controversial, it's too expansive, it's just not the same sort of program contemplated by the Senate last year. We're pleased to hear the Senate will probably pick up where it left off last year."

We're also dismayed that CISPA passed the House of Representatives, 288-127, even though it's run by Republicans, who are supposed to value limited government and personal privacy.

We understand the concerns about China, North Korea and other governments hacking into American government and business computer systems. But we believe that legislation can be crafted to deal with threats without shredding the Bill of Rights.

"We are currently drafting a bipartisan information-sharing bill and will proceed as soon as we come to an agreement," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced last week; she is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. We encourage her to make sure that Americans' Fourth Amendment privacy rights are respected in the new legislation.

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