SurveillanceSponsors of CISPA to address nagging privacy concerns about the bill

House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), sponsors of the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), say they are currently working on the draft to alleviate privacy concerns civil liberty advocates may have about the bill.

CISPA was originally introduced in the House in late 2011 and approved by the committee   in April 2012 with strong bipartisan support. The full House is expected to vote on the bill next week.

The Daily Caller reports that CISPA has been crafted  to address a cyber threat information sharing problem between the private sector and the government.

CISPA, however, has upset  civil liberty and privacy advocates  because, they argue, the bill does not contain meaningful limits on the methods the government can use to monitor the browsing habits of individuals.

At one point, even President Barack Obama gave in to the pressure from privacy advocates, saying that he would veto the bill.

Rogers, who introduced the bill in February along with Ruppersberger, told reporters on Monday that the amendments  they  made would make “significant improvements” to the bill.

“It’s clear when you read the bill this is not a surveillance bill, that’s another common misperception. It just is not,” Rogers said.

“It does not allow the NSA, or any government agency, to plug in to domestic networks and listen in. That does not happen,” Rogers added.

Rogers also said that the bill’s co-sponsors will continue to listen to suggestions on the bill, and that they plan to add more provisions to the bill in an effort to reassure the public that “nothing in this bill will do anything to sacrifice” privacy or civil liberties.

On Monday the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation hosted a joint question and answer session in anticipation of Wednesday’s mark up of CISPA.