This year’s CISPA is just like last year’s CISPA. That has some privacy groups concerned as the bill makes it easier for companies to share private information with the government while granting them immunity. To help address these concerns, one lawmaker will be introducing an amendment to CISPA next week.
The Hill reports that Rep. Adam Schiff will be introducing a pro-privacy amendment during the House Intelligence Committee’s markup of CISPA. The amendment would make companies do their damnest to remove personally identifiable information from any data that they share with government.
Beyond that, the amendment would also allow companies to use automated processes in removing personal information from data. The automated removal of information would serve two purposes – it would make the removal of information more accurate, and it would speed up the process to better counter cybersecurity threats.
The amendment is a great first step to making sure CISPA protects privacy, but Schiff has indicated that he has yet to reach a consensus with the bill’s authors – Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger. Fortunately, Schiff says that the tech industry has yet to raise any objections to his amendment.
Even with the support of industry, Schiff’s amendment may not make it into CISPA. What’s worse is that we won’t even know what actually happened until after the fact thanks to the committee holding the CISPA markup behind closed doors. Still, there’s a small sliver of hope resting on Schiff’s shoulders as the congressman said that he wouldn’t vote CISPA out of committee unless it had his amendment, or another suitable pro-privacy amendment, tacked on to it.
Even with these proposed amendments, there’s always the chance that CISPA can worm its way through the House just like it did last year. After that, it will be up to the Senate and White House to make sure that it doesn’t go through without reasonable privacy protections.
