Apple has joined Dropbox in opposing a controversial cybersecurity bill that could give the U.S. government new powers to spy on citizens under the pretense that they are protecting them from hackers.
“We don’t support the current CISA proposal,” Apple said in a statement, reports The Washington Post. “The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”
The announcement comes days before the Senate is expected to vote on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) proposal — and at a time when Apple has been keenly highlighting its mission to protect user privacy.
The Cupertino company has been promoting its strict privacy policies in recent weeks and strongly opposing things like government backdoors in software. Apple also told a U.S. judge on Monday thatit “is impossible” to unlock devices running iOS and above.
Dropbox acknowledged that “it’s important for the public and private sector to share relevant data about emerging threats,” but added that this “collaboration should not come at the expense of users’ privacy.” The company said CISA needed more privacy protections.
Apple and Dropbox join Yelp, Reddit, Twitter, and the Wikimedia Foundation in opposing CISA in recent days. Other tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo have also voiced their own concerns through the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
“The two firms’ entry into the debate — particularly Apple, which rarely wades into Washington policy fights — complicates last-minute efforts to pass the bill, which has bipartisan backing and is expected to get a vote next Tuesday,” The Post explains.
Those backing CISA insist that its purpose is to allow companies to share information on “cyber threats” with the government and security agencies. However, some see it as a means to spy on on users in the name of protecting them from hackers.
CISA’s supporters estimate they have around 70 votes in the Senate, which would be enough to approve the legislation that is also backed by the White House, The Post adds.
No comments:
Post a Comment