Big Telcos Love CISPA; More Immunity For Violating Our Customers Privacy?!? Sign Us Up!
from the of-course-they-like-it dept
It's well known that the big telcos and the federal government have an all-too-cozy relationship when it comes to handing over data on telco customers. This has included ignoring all the rules and going so far as handing over information based on a post-it note given to them by the FBI. The telcos general standpoint has been that they're happy to let the government reach deep into their data -- more or less adding a direct tap on all of us. Congress, however, gift-wrapped them immunity to any lawsuits from all of that kind of stuff. Still, these days, the telcos sure do like not being liable for coughing up their customer's private info to the government, so it should come as little surprise that they're practically shoving each other aside to support CISPA.Two major trade groups, CTIA and US Telecom, each issued short statements saying that CISPA is a good thing. US Telecom claimed that the bill would make it more efficient to detect, deter and respond to cyberthreats. That would be nice if true, but no one's yet explained how that actually would work in practice. CTIA knows how to play the press, and started its press release by hyping up recent hack attacks. That CISPA likely would have done absolutely nothing to stop those attacks is conveniently ignored.
Meanwhile AT&T and Verizon each offered their own support for the bill, making it clear that protection from liability is the most important thing to them.
The telcos, of course, have nothing to lose and everything to gain from CISPA. It gives them even more freedom from liability in sharing your info, but doesn't present any specific regulatory burdens on them. Of course, shouldn't we be a lot more concerned about the views of the people whose privacy would be violated, than the views of those violating their privacy?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cispa, cybersecurity, immunity, information sharing, privacy, telcos
Companies: at&t, ctia, ustelecom, verizon
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Is EFF's on the case?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is EFF's on the case?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Is EFF's on the case?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is EFF's on the case?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
of course we should! that's exactly why the 'views of the people' will be totally ignored! after all, how could any good telco be doing it's job if it wasn't ignoring those whose privacy it is supposed to be protecting, the very ones that pay for the services supplied and giving the government carte blanche to conduct more and more surveillance on 'the people', particularly when there is no surveillance needed? i mean, come on!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wall St vs K St
All too often, we misguidedly point the finger at the company for being self-interested when we should be calling/tweeting/emailing/posting(FB) to DEMAND that our so called Govt do their jobs to ensure the people are �secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects��.
Occupy Wall St should have been focused on K St in Wash DC, where the real crime takes place.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wall St vs K St
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
its press release
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Captain Obvious
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Target Of CISPA
"The greater threat [to privacy] is from the attacker coming in and trying to make something public that shouldn't be." - John Engler, Business Roundtable
I think this is a complete sidestep to the issue, the issue is that these companies and the government do not want anything they do which is wrong and damaging to individuals and public exposed. They want a free pass so that no conscience can see the light of day, they want to penalize anyone who exposes their activity regardless of who they have harmed with their activity, both corporations and the government - they want to throw accountability to the wind so they can do as they please with no penalty. They don't want to be accountable to the people, whose public funds they use (they want to be public "servants" while they make you serve like slaves). The "cyber-crime" is just a side issue, they put something having to do with harming children to make the other activity (exposing their dirty activity by pulling it out of cyberspace) look really heinous by written association (they always use kids to stand behind, like they care), and threw in foreign espionage activity for good measure.
As an example, we can see what representative Rogers wants, by what he wanted done to Bradley Manning - death penalty for treason, or to endlessly torture someone to death - specifically for pulling their recorded activity off of the internet for all to see (the evidence), they want to criminalize it with severe penalties. They not only want impunity for needless wars, but impunity for those who supply what is needed for the war - corporations, and this is just one example, it can virtually be anything harmful to the public. They want to keep the propaganda machine going with no exposure (corporations/government, does not matter which or both).
They want to do what they are doing to Julian Assange as a matter of course - big time, for anyone else who wants to expose corporate or government activity in a similar manner. They want to criminalize dissent if it exposes their activity, whereas an individual can be investigated and evidence be brought against them for criminal activity, they do not want any person(s) to uncover what they do (government, corporations) and make them pay a penalty (I can understand why, because they are congenital thieves and mass murderers!). The issue is that we have both a criminal government and corporations. They want to resume assassinations and imprisonments on a large scale against dissent, against anyone who opposes the corporate/government (they are virtually indistinguishable at this point, it is like a revolving door out of corporations into government and back again).
They want you to be quiet, they want you to die without a whimper as they enact their fascist policies (because that is what fascism is, the complete melding of business and government - and the consequent attempts to silence protest by any means necessary), because that is what this is - it is a fascist bill, it is a Nazi bill. They want you to remain silent as they plunge a knife into democracy - don't let them do it!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]