ALA Supports Amash Amendment to CISPA Bill

During ‘Cybersecurity Week’ in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, the American Library Association announced its support for the “Amash/Labrador/Nadler/Paul/Polis Amendment” to H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA). The ALA asked Congress to amend H.R. 3523 and move it toward a proper balance between our nation’s privacy laws and the need to fight cybersecurity threats. CISPA trumps all current privacy laws including the forty-eight state library record confidentiality laws as well as the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Wiretap Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The Amash amendment sought to protect library patron records and other personally identifiable information from wholesale sharing among private companies, ISP providers and the government. The amendment passed 415 to 0, although the bill did not include other proposed amendments that the ALA supported. The Amash Amendment was the type of amendment essential to address the serious problems in H.R. 3523 and the library community remained disappointed in the outcome of the final bill.

ALA President Molly Raphael joined many organizations, including the American Society of News Editors, American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Media and Democracy, in opposition to the cybersecurity bill by signing a coalition letter. ALA had urged Congress to accept the Amash Amendment and to seek other improvements to the bill.

View the entire post on District Dispatch: News for friends of libraries

Hey people in the US! Here’s a quick and easy form to use to contact your Senators to urge them to vote no on CISPA.

katiebell42:

House Passes CISPA: Make Sure It Dies In The Senate

Because you know Leslie Knope would be against CISPA and would be all over this fuckery.

Leslie Knope is the best anti-librarian character on television. Probably tied with Ron Swanson.

Cybersecurity bill votes start in three days – Keep the pressure on

Library and privacy supporters: Keep pressuring House members to vote NO on H.R. 3523 and other bills that will restructure our nation’s privacy policies and laws. ALA remains staunchly opposed to this bill.  Petition your elected representatives with the ALA Legislative Action Center.

The major problems remain:

• CISPA would permit private “entities” (ISPS, utilities, etc.) to share huge amounts of information about our electronic communications with the government without a legal review or warrant;
• CISPA permits these private providers to provide dumps of information without necessarily anonymizing or aggregating the information to protect personal privacy;
• CISPA would authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) – an intelligence and military agency – to receive all of the Internet records to be used, not just for cybersecurity, but for other “lawful purposes” as well;
• CISPA trumps all other privacy laws – state, local and national – if the sharing of the information is deemed “cybersecurity.”

Read more at DistrictDispatch.org

Ask Your Representative to Vote NO on CISPA

Please call and ask your U.S. Representative to OPPOSE H.R. 3523, The Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 or CISPA, one of several bills to be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives during “Cybersecurity Week” starting April 23, 2012. Look up and call your U.S. Representative here and look up his or her twitter handle here.

Ask your representative to vote NO on CISPA because it:

• Does not limit the use of the shared information to cybersecurity;
• Does not adequately define “cybersecurity” related information;
• Does not limit needless data collection and retention; and it
• Does trump all existent federal, state and local records retention laws, including the 48 state library record confidentiality laws;

ALA is concerned that essentially all private electronic communications could be obtained by the government and used for many purposes – and not just for cybersecurity activities.  H.R. 3523 would permit, even require ISPs and other entities to monitor all electronic communications and share personal information with the government without effective oversight just by claiming the sharing is for “cybersecurity purposes.”

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