CISA: Did Your Senators Vote to Protect Your Privacy?

Last week, the Senate passed the controversial cybersecurity bill known as CISA with a vote of 74-21, with the remaining 5 taking a neutral stance.

The bill, if passed, will allow and encourage companies to share user and customer information with the government in an attempt to combat cybercrime. Opponents of the bill view it as an enormous loophole giving the government another opportunity to spy on the public while doing relatively little to thwart actual cybersecurity threats.

Cybersecurity and surveillance are both huge topics of concern for citizens and government officials alike. Hacking and leaking private information is on the rise. As the below graphic shows, the first four months of 2014 had over 100,000,000 more private records lost or stolen than in all of 2013.

Major security breaches to Sony, T-Mobile, Target, Adobe, Snapchat, Yahoo, and others have put customer and employee information in the hands of unknown hackers as well as the public. It goes without saying that measures need to be taken to prevent this trend from continuing, but many would like this to be done without sharing this information with government agencies instead.

(Image by University of Cincinnati)

“CISA allows private companies to immediately share a perfect record of your private activities,” explains former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who infamously leaked classified information on the NSA’s surveillance practices. “And the government [will] reward [them] for doing it by granting them a special form of legal immunity for their cooperation.”

Snowden isn’t alone in his view. Activist organizations such as Demand Progress and Fight for the Future have been rallying against CISA and related bills for years now. Tech companies like Apple and Dropbox as well as the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which represents Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, eBay, Microsoft, PayPal, and more, have publicly spoken out against the bill

Despite disagreeing with the possible surveillance loophole, CISA’s opponents do acknowledge a need for something to be done about cybersecurity.

The Internet Society published a white paper titled Collaborative Security that details an alternative plan to protect data without compromising privacy. It suggests that no one organization is responsible or even capable of handling all the issues under the cybersecurity umbrella, and puts the Internet’s safekeeping in everybody’s hands.

“Everyone has a collective responsibility for the security of the Internet,” the paper explains, “Multistakeholder cross-border collaboration is an essential component.”

The true effects of CISA will only be known if it is combined with two similar bills that have already passed in the House of Representatives and is signed by President Obama. In the meantime, take a look at who voted for or against the bill below:

 

Alexander (R-TN), Yea Ayotte (R-NH), Yea Baldwin (D-WI), Nay Barrasso (R-WY), Yea Bennet (D-CO), Yea Blumenthal (D-CT), Yea Blunt (R-MO), Yea Booker (D-NJ), Nay Boozman (R-AR), Yea Boxer (D-CA), Yea Brown (D-OH), Nay Burr (R-NC), Yea Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Capito (R-WV), Yea Cardin (D-MD), Nay Carper (D-DE), Yea Casey (D-PA), Yea Cassidy (R-LA), Yea Coats (R-IN), Yea Cochran (R-MS), Yea Collins (R-ME), Yea Coons (D-DE), Nay Corker (R-TN), Yea Cornyn (R-TX), Yea Cotton (R-AR), Yea Crapo (R-ID), Nay Cruz (R-TX), Not Voting Daines (R-MT), Nay Donnelly (D-IN), Yea Durbin (D-IL), Yea Enzi (R-WY), Yea Ernst (R-IA), Yea Feinstein (D-CA), Yea Fischer (R-NE), Yea

Flake (R-AZ), Yea Franken (D-MN), Nay Gardner (R-CO), Yea Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea Graham (R-SC), Not Voting Grassley (R-IA), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Yea Heinrich (D-NM), Yea Heitkamp (D-ND), Yea Heller (R-NV), Nay Hirono (D-HI), Yea Hoeven (R-ND), Yea Inhofe (R-OK), Yea Isakson (R-GA), Yea Johnson (R-WI), Yea Kaine (D-VA), Yea King (I-ME), Yea Kirk (R-IL), Yea Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea Lankford (R-OK), Yea Leahy (D-VT), Nay Lee (R-UT), Nay Manchin (D-WV), Yea Markey (D-MA), Nay McCain (R-AZ), Yea McCaskill (D-MO), Yea McConnell (R-KY), Yea Menendez (D-NJ), Nay Merkley (D-OR), Nay Mikulski (D-MD), Yea Moran (R-KS), Yea Murkowski (R-AK), Yea Murphy (D-CT), Yea Murray (D-WA), Yea

Nelson (D-FL), Yea Paul (R-KY), Not Voting Perdue (R-GA), Yea Peters (D-MI), Yea Portman (R-OH), Yea Reed (D-RI), Yea Reid (D-NV), Yea Risch (R-ID), Nay Roberts (R-KS), Yea Rounds (R-SD), Yea Rubio (R-FL), Not Voting Sanders (I-VT), Nay Sasse (R-NE), Yea Schatz (D-HI), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea Scott (R-SC), Yea Sessions (R-AL), Yea Shaheen (D-NH), Yea Shelby (R-AL), Yea Stabenow (D-MI), Yea Sullivan (R-AK), Nay Tester (D-MT), Nay Thune (R-SD), Yea Tillis (R-NC), Yea Toomey (R-PA), Yea Udall (D-NM), Nay Vitter (R-LA), Not Voting Warner (D-VA), Yea Warren (D-MA), Nay Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea Wicker (R-MS), Yea Wyden (D-OR), Nay

 

How did your senators vote?

Photo Credit: Peter Gudella / shutterstock.com