The United States government doesn’t have the best record when it comes to protecting the privacy of its citizens. Just think back to Edward Snowden and his whistleblower announcement in 2013 that exposed the National Security Agency for gathering private information and spying on pretty much every man, woman, and child within the country.

It was the first major breakthrough that verified the U.S. government was actively collecting information (1). Under the guise of the Patriot Act, security agencies secretly gathered information on citizens and foreigners alike. There was public outcry as people fought for their liberties, while others seemed unscathed, stating they simply had nothing to hide.

Opinions aside, the government was caught with documents revealing information about secret missions and even just text message conversations between families.

Even though the released documents caused plenty of public outcry, the government is furthering their agenda with the latest bill signed by the Senate.

S. 754

Initially introduced in March, the bill is part of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), also known as S. 754 (2). The bill is said to protect businesses and government agencies from cybersecurity attacks like last year’s Target incident or this year’s T-Mobile and Experian situations (3)(4).

The bill is meant to create liability protection for companies that willingly share cyber-threat data with government agencies, preventing companies from facing lawsuits should information be shared.

Just last week the Senate approved the bill with a 74-21 split in favor with support from Democrats and Republicans (5). Business interests support the bill because it eliminates legal ramifications for private sector companies to share gathered information with government agencies.

The bill has been met with a gratuitous amount of opposition. In addition to the 21 Senators that voted against the bill, many technology industry officials have voiced their concerns. This includes the likes of prominent companies like Apple, Dropbox, and Facebook (6). Many of these companies even spoke out in an open letter to Congress (7).

Until recently, the bill had been tossed around due to public outcry. After passing the Senate Intelligence Committee almost unanimously, the bill hit the Senate floor. The only Intelligence Committee member in opposition was Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) who called the bill a “surveillance bill by another name” (8).