After CISPA returned in February, privacy advocates started a “We The People” petition asking the White House to stand against the controversial legislation. It’s been a month since the petition was created, and advocates are one step closer to a response.
The “Stop CISPA” petition on the We The People petition site has crosses the recently instated 100,000 threshold required for a response from the Obama administration. The petition asks the administration to reject CISPA for its overly broad language:
CISPA is about information sharing. It creates broad legal exemptions that allow the government to share “cyber threat intelligence” with private companies, and companies to share “cyber threat information” with the government, for the purposes of enhancing cybersecurity. The problems arise from the definitions of these terms, especially when it comes to companies sharing data with the feds.
It will be interesting to see if, and how, the administration responds to this petition. President Obama has already signed an executive order that accomplishes what CISPA aims to do without the civil liberty violations. The President acknowledged, however, that an executive order isn’t enough and called upon Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation.
That’s going to be the hard part, though, as Congress proved last year that it can’t agree on cybersecurity measures. Privacy advocates may not even have to bother the White House if the House and Senate can’t come to any sort of agreement. Even if they do, the White House promised to stand against CISPA last year. Unless something changes, the White House will stand against CISPA again.
[h/t: TechDirt]