Telecom immunity bill stops in the Senate
In a bit of good luck courtesy Senator Dodd who is running for president, his promised filibuster of the Telecom immunity bill has stopped on the senate floor, to be revisited next year. This is an important piece of legislation in regards to how much the telecommunications companies can work with the NSA, and what legal protections people, companies and government have towards each other.
The presidential candidate threatened to filibuster and hold the Senate floor if the Senate shot down his amendment to strip immunity from the bill. That threat moved Reid to postpone a vote on the bill, so that the Senate could take up war funding bills, a massive domestic spending bill and changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax before the winter break. Dodd’s determination to fight telecom immunity also boosted his lagging presidential campaign. Source: Wired
You can read the EFF press release here.
The EFF is also running a campaign here so that you can contact your senator or house representative via a form message, but it would also be important to add your own voice to the form. The some 40 lawsuits the telecom companies face right now in relationship to the entire “warrantless wiretap” program can continue until and if the immunity bill or immunity section of the bill is passed.
The relationship between citizens, government, and companies in relationship to privacy of their communications with others as a drift net across the entire framework of communications in the USA needs to have checks and balances. Just like any other relationship, these checks and balances ensures that people can not have too much power, or too little power over what is being done with their data and who has access to it.
The lawsuits beyond their face value, will allow people to know the extent of the program, the extent of how government and business have worked together, and what kinds of data were captured. If the data has real value, and has resulted in any real action (which is doubtful according to the news), or if the data is just part of a voyeuristic process on the part of government and business.
This is a good thing, and it is unfortunate that other senators who are running for president did not see the value or do more to support the delay of this bill. While you are writing your senators and house representatives, it also might be a good idea to drop a line to each of the presidential candidates and ask them where they were, and if they support the bill or not.
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