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


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
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.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
10 things you need to know today: September 25, 2023
Daily Briefing GOP leaders pressure far-right holdouts to help prevent a shutdown, Hollywood writers reach tentative deal to end strike, and more
By Harold Maass Published
-
What's the point of party conferences?
Talking Point The annual gatherings have quirky rituals and eccentric attendees but also act as 'important way-markers for our politics'
By Sorcha Bradley Published
-
Movies to watch in October, from 'The Exorcist: Believer' to 'Killers of the Flower Moon'
The Explainer Taylor Swift and Martin Scorsese are coming to a theater near you
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
Biden creates White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Speed Read The office will be led by Vice President Kamala Harris
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Rishi Sunak lambasts China after allegations of spy in UK Parliament
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Judge denies Mark Meadows' request to move Georgia case to federal court
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson dies at 75
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Clarence Thomas officially discloses trips from billionaire GOP donor
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Judge schedules Trump federal election plot trial for crowded March 2024
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin ally-turned-rival, presumed dead in plane crash
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published