Rep. Hank Johnson: CISPA bill violates Americans’ privacy rights

Rep. Hank Johnson released the following statement after voting against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) (H.R.624):

"Today, I opposed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) because the government could be given a private citizen's personal information without a warrant, and would be granted authority to use the information in a criminal investigation not related to a cybersecurity threat.

Last year I opposed CISPA and compared it to Orwell’s novel 1984 because it threatened to create a surveillance state. I rise again in opposition to CISPA for this reason.

We need sensible legislation to confront cyber threats. But this bill goes too far.

CISPA would broadly authorize government agencies to share personal data with law enforcement. Republicans would not allow a vote on my amendment to solve this problem.

This means that under CISPA, the NSA could share data with law enforcement to investigate computer crimes, which is so broad it includes lying about your age on Facebook.

Are these really the cyber threats that this bill claims to fix?

We must defend against cyber attacks while protecting the liberties and privacy of Americans."

###