Your Privacy is in Jeopardy!

Dear friend of liberty,

This coming week, Congress is set to take up another so-called "cybersecurity" bill, H.R. 3523, the "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011" (CISPA).

And this time, many of those who joined us to stop SOPA and PIPA are supporting this legislation.

After our victory over SOPA/PIPA, I wrote to you in late February about the need to stay vigilant against Congress' attempts to assert more control over the Internet.

Well, since then, Republicans and Democrats have introduced at least four major "cybersecurity" bills.

Expanding government power is always bipartisan.

CISPA, sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers (MI-8), is promoted as a harmless bill that will enable voluntary "information sharing" between private corporations and government agencies in the name of "cybersecurity."

Unfortunately, it would allow the transfer of vast amounts of data, including information like your Internet browsing history or email content, to any agency in the federal government, including non-civilian agencies such as the National Security Agency or the Department of Defense Cyber Command.

One major problem with these alleged "cybersecurity" bills is their overly broad focus on what information private companies are encouraged to share with federal agencies.

CISPA currently contains no incentive for private companies like Facebook or Google to remove personally identifiable information from data they share.

In addition, the way this legislation is drafted, it currently overrides privacy presumptions found in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Communications Act regarding the privacy of an individual's online communications and related records.

Essentially, CISPA would deem all existing privacy laws null and void for "cybersecurity" purposes.

Once the government has this information, there are no meaningful restrictions on its use, as its only qualifier is that it must be related to "cybersecurity" or to protect "national security."

So only the immediate action of you and your fellow C4L members can help protect our privacy from the government's ever-expanding reach.

After you've contacted your representative at (202) 224-3121 to demand a "NO" vote on H.R. 3523, please chip in at least $10 or $25 below to help Campaign for Liberty mobilize as many Americans as possible to take action on critical issues like CISPA and other so-called "cybersecurity" bills that would strip more privacy away from Americans.

This fight won't have the glamour or media attention that SOPA and PIPA received, so please take action immediately and show Congress the liberty movement is serious about defending our constitutionally protected rights no matter the odds.

In Liberty,

Matt Hawes

Vice President