Thursday, October 22, 2015

New Senate bill to encourage "voluntary" data sharing with Fed.Gov

Voluntary for now:
The bill, proposed by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), would allow internet giants and other companies to share people's personal information with the US government so it can be analyzed for signs of lawbreaking – be it computer related or not.

In return, the companies would get legal immunity from angry customers, although legal action is unlikely because the businesses and the government don't have to reveal what they have shared, even with a freedom of information request.
So why do I think the  voluntary bit has an expiration date?  Because the bill's sponsors say what they expect "good" corporate behavior to be:
Feinstein said organizations won't be forced to reveal citizens' private lives to Uncle Sam: it won't be mandatory for businesses to hand over people's private records, she claimed.

"If you don't like the bill, you don't have to do it," Feinstein said.
"So it's hard for me to understand why we have companies like Apple and Google and Microsoft and others saying they can't support the bill at this time. You have no reason, because you don't have to do anything, but there are companies by the hundreds if not thousands that want to participate in this."

Her colleague Burr said on the floor that he couldn't understand the opposition to CISA. Businesses against the new law will put their users at risk, he said, because by not sharing people's personal information, they will not be given intelligence and heads up on attacks from the Feds.

"When the companies who are against this get hacked, they are going to be begging to cooperate with the federal government," he opined.
So be a good businessman and join the Electronic Stasi.

5 comments:

  1. ""When the companies who are against this get hacked, they are going to be begging to cooperate with the federal government," he opined."

    That's a really nice business you got there. Shame if anything happened to it.

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  2. Did Feinstein follow If you don't like the bill, you don't have to do it with we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it or if you like the current warrant system for electronic surveillance you can keep it?

    How are these people taken seriously by anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't trust anything that has Feinstein's stench attached to it.....

    ReplyDelete
  4. We are living in a police state. I keep waiting for people to begin to disappear.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Who needs the Constitution when you can use Stingrays when someone thinks it is necessary? Or just wants to listen in without a warrant?

    http://apnews.myway.com/article/20151021/us-cell-site-technology-119affce57.html

    Our rights seem to be a quaint notion these days.

    ReplyDelete

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