A major piece of cybersecurity legislation is set for passage as part of the omnibus spending bill making its way through Congress this week. Privacy advocates expressed their dismay on Monday.
“Now is when we’ll find out whether President Obama really cares about the Internet and freedom of speech, or whether he’s happy to roll over and allow technologically illiterate members of Congress break the Internet in the name of cybersecurity,” Evan Greer, campaign director of the “Fight for the Future” coalition, said in a statement.
“This administration promised to veto any information sharing bill that did not adequately protect Internet users’ privacy, and the final version of this bill doesn’t even come close. It’s time for President Obama to deliver on his word,” Greer added.
The House passed two complementary bills on the issue in April. The Senate passed its own version, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, in October. Proponents say the legislation is intended to encourage more “information sharing” between the private sector and government by freeing companies from liability for sharing information about their users when they identify potential threats.
However, while the Senate’s version would allow companies to share information with a larger range of federal agencies, one of the bills passed by the House would require the information to be passed through a specific hub in the Department of Homeland Security. Fight for the Future has suggested that the final version appears to be more similar to the Senate bill.
“Let me be clear that we do not support any of the three bills,” Greer said. “But, of the three bills, the House Homeland Security Committee’s bill had the strongest privacy protections and was sort of the least terrible.”
The $1.15 trillion omnibus spending package, which would fund the federal government through the next fiscal year, was originally set to pass on Dec. 11. However, disagreements over policy riders have delayed its passage. The House is expected to pass a stopgap measure on Friday to keep the government funded until a final bill can be agreed upon.
