Government spies say the new internet security bill would let them spy too much

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken released a letter from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday which sees the surveillance agency objecting to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) on the grounds that it would give the government too much surveillance authority.

"The authorization to share cyber threat indicators and defensive measures with 'any other entity or the Federal Government,' 'notwithstanding any other provision of law,'" the DHS letter noted, "could sweep away important privacy protections." Some of the agency's other objections are more self-serving in nature, like its complaint that CISA would "increase the complexity and difficulty of a new information sharing program."

For civil liberties advocates, the problems with CISA are numerous, because the bill "allows vast amounts of personal data to be shared with the government, even that which is not necessary to identify or respond to a cybersecurity threat." More than 60 nonprofits and businesses have formed a pro-privacy coalition to oppose the passage of CISA.

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