Facebook defends support for House cybersecurity bill against privacy fears

In a blog post Friday, Facebook defended its support for a controversial cybersecurity bill that has raised the ire of Internet activists.

Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president of U.S. public policy, wrote that the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) “would make it easier for Facebook and other companies to receive critical threat data from the U.S. government.”

{mosads}CISPA, which is authored by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), would tear down legal barriers that discourage companies from sharing information about cyberattacks.

But activists fear it would undermine the privacy of Internet users. They argue the broad language of the bill could lead companies to hand over information unrelated to cyberattacks, including users’ names, addresses and Internet activity. 

They are also concerned because the bill would give military spy agencies, such as the National Security Agency, access to the information the companies share with the government.

Critics, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, are planning a week of protests against the bill.

Facebook partnered with many of the same Internet activists to defeat anti-piracy legislation earlier this year, and has drawn criticism for its support of CISPA.

But Kaplan noted that the legislation does not force Facebook to hand over user information to the government.

“Facebook has no intention of doing this and it is unrelated to the things we liked about HR 3523 in the first place — the additional information it would provide us about specific cyber threats to our systems and users,” he wrote.

Kaplan explained that when one company detects a cyberattack, promptly sharing information about that attack can help other companies to protect their systems and users.

He said that Facebook has been working with lawmakers to amend the bill to address the privacy concerns, and said Rogers and Ruppersberger have indicated “the door is still open to change the bill.”

“We hope that as Congress moves forward in considering this and any other cyber legislation, the result will be legislation that helps give companies like ours the tools we need to protect our systems and the security of our users’ information, while also providing those users confidence that adequate privacy safeguards are in place,” Kaplan wrote.

CISPA has more than 100 co-sponsors and is expected to come up for a vote in the House during the week of April 23.