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Opinion: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

Discussions of US CISPA Cyber Security legislation usually come with a lot of rhetoric and vague reasons for the law but no evidence that would justify its existence.

So who keeps compulsively pushing for US CISPA legislation? What is their motivation?

Well, the US Government players get discussed a lot already; they include the NSA, US Cyber Command, Dept Homeland Security, House Intelligence committee and the White House. Other private players are Defense Contractors that stand to profit from vending high capacity surveillance gear.

Besides the US Gov, there’s another major actor in this. US Tech Giants have been lobbying hard for CISPA because it grants them the Internet equivalent of a Christmas Pony.

I’ll clarify that statement. Most US government agencies have long been salivating for the Total-Awesome-Power that comes from always/everywhere Internet monitoring. To achieve Full-On Gov Monitoring , Congress initially gifts the ability to Big US Tech Companies.

Said pony-gift will include:

Government’s own pure authority to collect private citizen & business data
Federal legal protection and secrecy mandates so the data can be safely and discretely monetized

Big Tech is already ideally placed to vacuum up our data.

With that, all the White House+Congress needs to do is to keep record-skipping their “Data Sharing” mantra and suddenly MAGIC! CISPA doesn’t at all look like an unprecedented power grab by the Feds.

And, what’s especially delicious is that our pony won’t cost even cost the US Treasury a single sprig of hay.

“But wait” says you. “Because of last year’s SOPA fiasco, the US-Tech-Industry should be pretty wary of new Internet Surveillance Legislation.”

Well, it turns out that just the inferred promise of a Christmas Pony has Big Tech writing one Santa Letter after another to Congress. Each letter gushes with love for the regulatory Candyland that is CISPA.

It seems all the US Gov had to do, was to pony up the Gov Authority to Harvest Private Data (and distribute it), without any Meaningful Oversight. It’s an potently seductive temptation; akin to letting Law Enforcement Agencies write their own Martial Law.

By now you are cleverly asking, “How does a surveillance machine operated by US Biz give the US Feds Total-Awesome-Power?”

Simple. Over time, the US Gov will gradually establish Federal authority over private data gathering. HIPAA (US) or the Data Protection Directive (EU) may be cited as precedent. Eventually Big Tech’s ability to handle PII (Personally Identifiable Information) will be snugly under federal control.

That’s it. Done and done. Big Tech gets what it thinks it wants; US Gov realizes its wildest surveillance dream and citizens become a commodity whose value is tied to the data they produce.

What’s left to say (except Merry Christmas)?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by WarOnPrivacy .