CISPA moves forward, but rejected amendments frustrate privacy advocates

In an email to SCMagazine.com, Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst and legislative assistant for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized how the CISPA vote was conducted.

“Holding the hearing in secret and behind closed doors is a detriment to the American public,” Jaycox said Wednesday evening. “Laws should not be made in secret. They should be influenced and informed by a debate that's open to the public to watch.”

Meanwhile, Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of social news site Reddit, published a video urging Google, Facebook and Twitter to protest CISPA's disregard for citizens' privacy.

“I'm hoping that all of these tech companies take a stand that their privacy policies matter, their users' privacy matters, and no legislation like CISPA should take that away,” Ohanian said.

So far, Facebook, once on board with CISPA, reportedly has withdrawn its support of the bill now that contentious points of the legislation were overlooked in the latest vote.

Those continuing to support the passage of CISPA have argued that the bill is essential to protecting the government from trade secret theft and critical infrastructure from potentially crippling attacks. Recent allegations that the Chinese government has conducted cyber spying against American businesses, as detailed in a February report by security firm Mandiant, have hastened calls for legislation.