Go back about a year or so, and you’ll hopefully remember the words “SOPA” and “CISPA”. If you don’t, here’s a refresher: SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, intended to avoid the illegal downloading of any copyrighted material. In other words, SOPA’s goal was to send websites such as MediaFire, The Pirate Bay and thousands of others into the burning pits of the Internet, never to return. CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, is designed to alert the government of cyberthreats and to avoid potential attacks based on people’s internet history. Last year, SOPA and another bill, PIPA, caused quite a scene on the Internet, which then caused major sites like Wikipedia, Tumblr and even Google to participate in a blackout. This was the highly media-friendly world of the 21st-century speaking out for our rights. While SOPA and PIPA were voted down completely, CISPA, which made it through the House but not the Senate last year, is back to rear its ugly head at us internet-folk once again.
The basic idea behind CISPA makes sense—the government can track the Internet usage of a person or group of people who are suspected of criminal intention or acts and hopefully prevent those events from occurring. Government agencies can share this information with other agencies in an attempt to combat threats and dangers. Unfortunately, CISPA sacrifices any sense of privacy for Internet users. There are basically no lines for the government to stay behind.
President Barack Obama has been trying to work with the creators of the bill, as well as with the public, to come to an agreement on this issue. However, I don’t think the government should have the right to search anybody’s Internet history without a file of reasoning. It is so easy these days to provide “evidence” of a terror threat. If a bill like CISPA passes and I am doing a research report on Sept. 11th, it seems like there’s a chance that my history could provide evidence that I am intending to cause harm, and I could get into a load of trouble for it. This, to me, screams wrong. I find it hard to believe that in the tech world of 2013, we still don’t have a way to focus in on those who could cause real damage.
While CISPA’s main goal is to ensure cybersecurity, it still feels like an invasion. The idea that the government can just check up on me anytime it wants makes me very uncomfortable. I recognize that they can probably do this now, but I have constitutional rights that they are required to respect. With CISPA in place, I am essentially losing my right to privacy, something that I think a lot of us take for granted. CISPA is not the first attack on Internet freedom we’ve ever had, but so much of our lives these days revolve around the Internet. I use the Internet, on average, about eight hours a day. I’m not doing anything highly illegal or anything to endanger others, but the fact that I can no longer protect myself and my privacy against government agencies just feels like another way the country is changing to have a bigger government with more power and fewer restrictions.
The irony of this situation is that the government is not completely at fault. This privacy attack is one of many from the past and many to come. Citizens are quickly losing their rights and of course I could point fingers everywhere, but the biggest finger to point would be at all of us. We live in a democratic society where we have an opinion and a say in almost everything. Make your ideas known. Sign a petition. Go to a rally. The most important thing today is to understand the world around you, what’s happening in it, and to have a well-formed opinion, because there is nothing worse than being uninformed in a time when information is everywhere.
Please visit dailycardinal.com.
