Stop #CISPA
I don’t frequently get political, but it seems about every year (or less?) we have to get activated about Congress trying to pass legislation without understanding the technical implications. I’m very pro law-enforcement, and have a close friend who works for DoJ – he’s told me in the past that getting a search warrant is not that much of a barrier when conducting an investigation.
The following is copied verbatim from Jason Esman, who got it from a source called Your Anon News. They quote numerous primary sources including www.eff.org.
CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, is a law that would allow the government to extract your private information from the internet without a warrant. It’s the online equivalent of allowing a police officer to enter your home and start rummaging through your personal files without the permission of a court. The politicians who introduced this law pretend it will protect you but what it really does is circumvent your Fourth Amendment rights. CISPA also prevents you from suing companies when they illegally use your information.
Luckily there are numerous privacy advocates out there already fighting against CISPA such as the Internet Defense League, Fight for the Future, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now it’s time for us to do our part.
Anonymous has asked numerous companies to participate in an internet blackout on Monday, April 22. But, regardless of what these companies choose to do, individuals like ourselves can still help spread awareness of this threat. Below is a link to an image that promotes the hashtag #StopCISPA on Twitter. Make it your profile image all day Monday. Leave it up as long as you want.
#StopCISPA Profile Picture: http://i.imgur.com/Vr8XQQp.png
It may not be as effective or possible for you to stop talking all day, so we’ve provided some information below so that you can help get the word out instead:
If CISPA becomes law, the government can spy on you without a warrant: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/
If CISPA becomes law, when the gov’t downloads your private information, you’ll never even know: http://sunlightfoundation.com/
If CISPA becomes law, it makes it so companies can’t be sued when they do illegal things with your data: https://www.eff.org/
If CISPA becomes law, it makes every privacy policy on the web useless and violates the 4th amendment. http://www.aclu.org/blog/
Remember, there are more of us than there are of them. If we stick together we can stop CISPA once and for all.