
Congress ending privacy with CISPA? Fight back with TMI - sethbannon
http://congresstmi.org/
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capnrefsmmat
I wish people would stop legitimizing the idea that privacy is about hiding
embarrassing things. Privacy is more important than the fear of your neighbors
finding your copy of Maxim, but this strategy of sending Congress embarrassing
details neglects that. It's vulnerable to the "but I have nothing to hide!"
objection.

To quote something I have written elsewhere on the Internet:

Giving the government the power to read your email, tap your phone, and record
your porn usage isn't bad simply because it's embarrassing. After all, the
data will likely only be seen by a computer. But it gives the government
enormous power to make decisions about you -- decisions about whether you may
take a commercial airline flight, get a security clearance, or even get a job
-- without your knowledge or consent, and without you knowing how they make
the decisions.

In short, a lack of privacy gives the government the power to be even less
transparent in its decision-making, and gives it yet more power over its
citizens. It's not a question of discovering your fetishes or being
embarrassed, and we shouldn't respond to the "nothing to hide" argument as
though their conception of privacy is right and having nothing to hide really
is an excuse.

There's a rather good paper I can recommend on the subject:

<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565>

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tptacek
_What is CISPA? A cybersecurity bill that lets any company share your info
with all of government, with no limits. In short, CISPA is the end of
meaningful privacy for anyone with personal data on US-based services._

No, it isn't. Your meaningful privacy was eliminated in 1986 with the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which specifically allows service
providers of all sorts to collect and share sensitive information without
limit and disclose that information to anyone else, so long as it's done
incident to an attempt to maintain their service. The ECPA specifically carves
out the power for service providers to share information _without limit_ and
_without a warrant_ to anyone acting under color of law in a criminal
investigation.

CISPA is a crappy law, not least because it's pointless, but the amount of
misinformation being spread about it dazzling. I recommend that you be
especially suspicious of any organization trying to rile you up over this
bill. They're just capitalizing on rageviews.

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HistoryInAction
Tom, are you yourself in MV? Hackers & Founders is putting together a town
hall at CNET on Thursday, we need panelists with a security background to tell
was WTF the implications of this bill are, what the status quo is.

Declan McCullugh is moderating. Interested and able?

My expertise is Startup Visa and founder immigration issues, I don't know jack
about this stuff, so if I'm getting misinformation, I want to know it and
replace it. Tell me more!

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joshAg
that sounds interesting. is the event open to the public?

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HistoryInAction
Yep!
[http://www.hackersandfounders.com/events/60972502/?a=ea1_grp...](http://www.hackersandfounders.com/events/60972502/?a=ea1_grp&eventId=60972502&action=detail)

