CISPA 'Dead For Now': 'Privacy Killer' Bill Hits A Wall In The Senate

The controversial Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is likely to die in the Senate, according to US News.

The bill, which has stirred up internet privacy watchdogs and sites like Reddit, followed closely in the footsteps of the last unsuccessfully proposed privacy bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect I.P. Act (PIPA). SOPA and PIPA met their end last year after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid canceled debate following pressure and protests from Internet companies such as Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit.

The heat on CISPA hasn't been as hot as the pressure put on SOPA and PIPA last year, but Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) who is the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation says that CISPA's privacy protections are "insufficient" and a committee aid confirmed to CNET that "Rockefeller believes the Senate will not take up CISPA."

Coupled with President Barack Obama's threatened veto, CISPA as it is now could be all but dead, at least according to Michelle Richardson, legislative council with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I think it's dead for now," she told US News. "CISPA is too controversial, it's too expansive, it's just not the same sort of program contemplated by the Senate last year. We're pleased to hear the Senate will probably pick up where it left off last year."

Why the uproar over CISPA? The bill allows companies to pass along what the government calls "cyber threat" data which includes personal information like user data to the United Sates Government. If the bill passed, they could legally give data over to law enforcement and not face legal repercussions.

But Business Insider's Geoffrey Ingersoll says it's passage would have been pointless anyway, because all it would have done is give more legal cover to the government and companies for surveillance practices they already engage in.