Civil Liberties: Coons Hero, Carper Villain. At Least For One Day.

They really are different, after all. At least when it comes to protecting your right to privacy.

The Senate passed the so-called ‘Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act’ of 2015 yesterday. The bill, quoting this article,:

• Requires that any Internet user information volunteered by a company to the Department of Homeland Security for cybersecurity purposes be shared immediately with the NSA, other elements of the Intelligence Community, with the FBI/DOJ, and many other Federal agencies – a requirement that will discourage company participation in the voluntary information sharing scheme envisioned in the bill;
• Risks turning the cybersecurity program it creates into a backdoor wiretap by authorizing sharing and use of CTIs (cyber threat indicators) for a broad array of law enforcement purposes that have nothing to do with cybersecurity;
• Authorizes cybersecurity “countermeasures” that would violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and cause harm to others;
• Will have unintended consequences – it trumps all law in authorizing companies to share user Internet communications and data that qualify as “cyber threat indicators;”
• Does nothing to address conduct of the NSA that actually undermines cybersecurity, including the stockpiling of zero day vulnerabilities.

The bill also does one more thing. It “offers legal immunity to corporations that violate the terms of privacy contracts with their users, rendering them meaningless. “

Throughout the process, including proposing and voting on amendments, Chris Coons was one of the few voices for civil liberties.  He proposed a meaningful amendment that would have significantly limited the disclosure of irrelevant personal information. He was one of the few champions of civil liberties throughout the process:

Stalwarts

If you look at the votes from today as well as the votes last Thursday (see here and here), there are only 12 senators who consistently took the civil libertarian side:

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Pat Leahy (D-VT)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

BTW, the Coons Amendment failed, 41-54.  Tom Carper voted against it.  In fact, on this issue, Tom Carper supported unwarranted and unnecessary surveillance on every vote. Coons opposed unwarranted surveillance on every vote, including final passage of this latest unnecessary intrusion into our lives.

Thanks, Chris. Tom? Please leave.