TrueRep: Around the Web Posted Mon, April 23rd by TrueRep in News, News, Online Privacy, Reputation Management
The US is currently poised to pass a new law that would allow US agents to spy on almost everything people do online. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protecting Act (CISPA) would allow companies doing business in the US to collect information related to individuals’ online activity and hand it over to the US government. CISPA is being moved forward in Congress and will be voted upon in a matter of days.
Privacy Groups Launch Protest Against CISPA Bill
Several groups launched protests against a controversial proposed cybersecurity bill that would allow companies to send private data to government at any time. This bill was originally introduced in November and is scheduled for a vote in the US House of Representatives this week.
Facebook Doesn’t Have to Trample on Our Privacy Rights in the Name of Cybersecurity
Facebook has received a great deal of criticism from digital rights groups in order to get the company to drop support of the CISPA bill. In response to those criticisms, Facebook’s Vice President of US Public Policy Joel Kaplan published a statement last week admitting that they had privacy concerns with the bill. He also stated that Facebook’s major cybersecurity goal is to receive more data about cybersecurity threats from the government, which is something that doesn’t necessitate the sweeping data sharing provisions currently outlined in CISPA.
Internet Privacy Laws Lacking in U.S. 
Over half of the Internet’s top sites use “Flash cookies” which track site visits and record clicks to specific sites as well as shopping carts created, and advertisements viewed. A survey by the University of California, Berkley and the University of Pennsylvania revealed that 86% of young adults don’t want tailored online advertising if it is a result of being anonymously followed on websites.
