US Senate Passes Controversial CISA “Surveillance Bill.”

The day before the EU Parliament chose not to enshrine Net Neutrality into European legislation, the US Senate struck their own blow to internet freedom by voting through the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, for short.

That the vote has passed the Senate is even more surprising when the vast array of opposition from tech companies and activists is taken into account. Even Apple, who seldom, if ever, stick their head above the metaphorical parapet, came out punching in a statement to the Washington Post before the vote.

“The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”

In league with Apple, were other industry heavyweights such as Google, and Twitter, who used the medium of a tweet to stake out their position on the matter:

“Security+privacy are both priorities for us and therefore we can’t support #CISA as written.”

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower also weighed in on the decision as well calling the CISA vote:

“the zombie #CISA surveillance bill.”

And as we reported here the other day, when even the government agency, the Department of Homeland Security,  responsible for administering the practical sides of the CISA bill when it becomes law, didn’t think it was a good idea, the question has been asked why such a controversial bill would even make it to the Senate floor in the first place.

But that said, not everyone is against the CISA bill. IBM came out in favor of the bill earlier in the year claiming CISA would help defend against cyber espionage and hackers.

One of the main issues by CISA opponents is whether the DHS can be trusted themselves to look after the data taken from companies compelled to hand over information. Even with the bill’s proponent to highlight the fact that all personally identifiable information should be stripped from the data, before being handed over, but CISA’s detractors claim that individuals could still be identified.

Senator Wyden, who passionately denounced the bill on the floor of the Senate, before the vote, has tabled an amendment calling for a more thorough set of rules for anonymizing people before any data is passed on or shared.