Somewhere Everywhere, Big Brother Is Smiling: Congress Sells Your Privacy For A Cool $84 Million
from the $84M-isn't-money;-it's-a-motive-with-a-universal-adapter dept
In case you were wondering why so many Democrats switched sides during the most recent CISPA vote, the answer is exactly what you think it is: $$$. And lots of it. Last year’s CISPA vote only managed to secure 40 Democrat supporters. This time around, the number leapt to 92.
[A] new coalition of special interests, which include America’s two largest cellular service providers AT&T, Inc. and Verizon Wireless — jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc. — as well as two of the nation’s largest software firms Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., came together to create a similar data grab bill (Microsoft has since renounced its support). Security firms like Symantec Corp. also backed the bill.
Pushing the bill through was $84M USD in funding from special interest backers.
$84 million is change-of-heart money, although one imagines those contributing checked and double-checked their “sponsored” representatives to make sure they were all on the same page. As DailyTech points out, nearly $86 million went into the SOPA push and most of that turned out to be wasted money.
Last Monday, two hundred IBM executives visited the White House to make a last minute push for CISPA. Whatever they said or did must have been very persuasive. By the end of the day, 36 new sponsors had signed on to the bill, up from a very lonely two previous to IBM’s visit. Unsurprisingly, financial motivation was involved, according to numbers gathered by Maplight.
New co-sponsors have received 38 times as much money ($7,626,081) from interests supporting CISPA than from interests opposing ($200,362).
Members of the House in total have received 16 times as much money ($67,665,694) from interests supporting CISPA than from interests opposing ($4,164,596).
Now, it’s up to Senate to come up with some sort of cyber-security bill that has a chance to get passed and dodge a Presidential veto. Fortunately, there’s no clear favorite at the moment (although Lieberman’s bill seems to have the President’s blessing) and with the limited number of voters, the Senate is much more prone to be gridlocked by partisan politics. Of course, a daylong visit by a few lobbyists could win over just enough hearts and minds to be dangerous. In the meantime, it would probably do these senators a world of good to hear from their constituents, if only to remind them that there are plenty of actual people out there who have to live with the consequences of bad legislation.
Filed Under: cispa, congress, cybersecurity
Comments on “Somewhere Everywhere, Big Brother Is Smiling: Congress Sells Your Privacy For A Cool $84 Million”
For sale: The United States of America
To remit payment, please contact any local Senator in the US Government. Upon receipt of payment, anything you want shall be granted, regardless of the rights of the people.
Three simple words: “We The People”, completely ignored by the government.
I will probably live long enough to see this country enter another revolution, if this keeps up.
Re: Re:
There won’t be enough interested people. They’ll be too busy watching American Idol and Fox News to give a damn.
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Not that it is much of a saving grace but I thought I saw a headline that the re-run of Big Bang Theory beat out American Idol in the ratings last week.
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Big Bang Theory strikes me as the kind of show where CISPA would be something Sheldon would be against and the fact that he’s against it would be the punchline.
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Well played, good sir.
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The Continental Army was never more than a tiny fraction of the population of the Thirteen Colonies, yet they won against a fairly committed superpower of the age which controlled vast resources just North of them in Canada. I’ve always thought it amazing that the Brits managed to lose that fight.
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Well, it was our ships and guns vs. their ships and guns. It wasn’t our guns vs. their fighter planes, bombers, drones, tanks, helicopters, etc..
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I’m more worried that most people won’t take action, because they believe everyone else is too busy watching American Idol and Fox News to give a damn.
I’m afraid that most people ARE interested, but are apathetic because they believe they are surrounded by fools. I’m worried this is the greater lie being delivered.
If you’re awake to what’s going on, DO SOMETHING. We all need to stop being so passive and start taking action to affect our futures.
Re: Re: Re: I've done all the calling and signing I'm supposed to do.
Though it seems a lot of my associates either can’t be bothered or don’t understand what the big deal is.
Talk about a Cassandra complex.
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If you’re awake to what’s going on, DO SOMETHING. We all need to stop being so passive and start taking action to affect our futures.
I stay involved. But my priorities may not be yours. Here’s what I care about most.
Pictures Of Environmental Destruction – Business Insider
Re: Re:
China already owns us. We’re trillions of dollars in debt to them.
At this point, what’s another $84 million?
Re: Re: China does not Own us
Our debt to china is 1.2Trillion. That’s singular not plural.
Re: Re: Re: China does not Own us
And China’s economy depends heavily on that of the United States, so they’re not eager to shake us down and kill the proverbial goose.
Congress is a cesspool of corruption, cronyism and cash (wow! that’s a lot of c-words).
Congress currently has an approval rating somewhere below 10% – which, I would guess, is the ratio of corporations (whose voices do count) to people (whose voices don’t count).
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I can think of another ?c?-word to describe a number of our lawmakers?
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InComprehensibly corrupt charlatans creating certain cash cows for their corporate chiefs. Crapping over the constitution is certainly how capitalism chews through our culture.
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Beat me to the punch there
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Amusingly it’s the money of “we the people” that runs the show. Now try to stop paying taxes to protest this to see how fast you are jailed and have your life destroyed.
Re: Re: Taxation without representation.
I remember this was an important concept once. It triggered some relevant event…
Re: Response to: Jeff on Apr 22nd, 2013 @ 7:34am
Well Said Jeff! I agree completely
Re: Response to: Jeff on Apr 22nd, 2013 @ 7:34am
When the party is almost over they get all they can, knowing they won’t have another chance. What will they have when money has no value, due to their greed and stupidy….
This the problem with modern politics. The people we elect can and will sell our interests down the river to maintain the bribes (sorry, donations) they receive from corporation.
To put a tech slant on things, the system is BSODing and needs an urgent restore.
Use Google for some news you may have missed:
“Reddit Cofounder Calls on Google’s Larry Page to drop support CISPA– the only way we can beat CISPA at this point is to persuade Google to …”
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1cqwe3/reddit_cofounder_calls_on_googles_larry_page_to/
——–
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/reddit-opposes-cispa/
————–
Google, Apple Lead Massive List of Companies Supporting CISPA
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/04/12/1759237/google-apple-lead-massive-list-of-companies-supporting-cispa
—————
BUT YET AGAIN, no mention of Google’s support for CISPA here at Techdirt. Why is that?
Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
Ranting against the very company whose service you just used to get your links.
Re: Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
OOTB’s a hypocrite.
Re: Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
LOL I’ll give him a funny vote for that, and you an insightful & funny and I’ll probably give him a report as well because he’s a dick.
Re: Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
Ranting? I only see a remark wondering why Masnick’s paymasters support of the bill has gone unmentioned.
Re: Re: Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
Ranting? I only see a remark wondering why Masnick’s paymasters support of the bill has gone unmentioned.
1. Google is not “Masnick’s paymasters.” Other than AdSense (which Techdirt doesn’t use anymore AFAIK), Google has never paid Techdirt or Mike one dime.
2. Mike wrote about tech companies’ support of CISPA, calling it “shameful:”
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130411/15571022683/shameful-tech-companies-fighting-against-necessary-cfaa-reform-cispa-fixes.shtml
But you’re right, “rant” is the wrong word. I would call it a “smear campaign,” but that implies that being associated with Google is a “smear,” which in itself is ludicrous. So, what it is, in reality, is a wingnut conspiracy theory.
Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
Must be a conspiracy. I mean it’s the only explanation. The only one.
Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
Funny, that very “news” was mentioned here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130411/15571022683/shameful-tech-companies-fighting-against-necessary-cfaa-reform-cispa-fixes.shtml
Re: Re: Use Google for some news you may have missed:
But Mike McGoogle Piracytard didn’t put SCROOGLED in big BOLD all CAPS text the WAY i DO so it DOESN’T COUNT!
Take a loopy tour of my post history:
out_OF_the_BLUE: where bold ALL CAPS assertions prove everything!
How much?
So, people of America, once again the special interests have paid for laws that suit them and not the people of America.
Thanks so much for selling the freedoms of the world down the river, literally this time.
‘Now, it’s up to Senate to come up with some sort of cyber-security bill that has a chance to get passed and dodge a Presidential veto.’
strange how there is no mention whatsoever of the trying to please those they are supposed to represent, isn’t it? why oh why is there virtually no change each year to who gets voted into the position of Senator? surely there must be enough out there that can actually do what they are supposed to and not be more concerned with just increasing their bank balance? how about putting the Senators in place atm under surveillance to see how they like it?
Get a hint
Something to realize..
YOU PAID FOR IT..
Where do you think they GOT THE MONEY..FROM YOU.
AND you will be Paying for it every time you purchase something.
If you dont know..
Over 1/2 the price you pay from these corps, is PAID by you for adverts, and lawyers and every OTHER thing they want/do..
Pragmatic for legal reasons for big tech companies
Many of the big tech companies backing the bill have been sold on it as it is a legal “get out of jail free” card for any and all abuses of personal information that might otherwise be actionable.
I would be surprised if there was even one general counsel at any tech company likely to be affected by CISPA recommending against the bill.
Re: Pragmatic for legal reasons for big tech companies
Seriously.
“You mean they have to prove bad faith to successfully make any privacy violation actionable? Where do I sign!”
Re: Pragmatic for legal reasons for big tech companies
Many of the big tech companies backing the bill have been sold on it as it is a legal “get out of jail free” card for any and all abuses of personal information that might otherwise be actionable.
I would be surprised if there was even one general counsel at any tech company likely to be affected by CISPA recommending against the bill.
This is my perception of what goes on between tech and DC. I don’t think DC does anything related to security that isn’t approved of by private enterprise. They work too closely together to separate it out. I think the “government is bad” campaign is primarily a way to divert people’s attention from just how much companies are doing to eliminate personal privacy.
CISPA BAD
the Senate might kill this again. Especially with Obama saying he will veto it. I don’t trust our “Exalted Leader” for anything as far as I could throw him. He has an ulterior motive for vetoing it.
Re: CISPA BAD
Like any good politician Obama will see what he can get out of it and then decide if it should be vetoed. I wonder when the American population is going to wake up to what is going on around them. It is not like the purchase of lawmakers is being hidden in any way, it is all there out in the open for everyone to see.
Re: Re: CISPA BAD
Isn’t this his last term in politics. He is heading for retirement and a fat advance for having someone ghost write his memoirs.
Re: CISPA BAD
*alterior. It makes it increasingly difficult to believe a word that comes off your fingers when you show little to no effort to learn 1st grade material.
Re: CISPA BAD
To make himself look good in the rues of the sheeple.
Can we stop pretending to be the Land of the Free yet? It’s a complete joke when our freedom has been bought and sold so many times.
Data is being collected and sold
We could completely remove government and our privacy would be gone anyway. At some point government will just hand security over the private contractors and there won’t be any reason for Congress to debate all of this.
Between Google monitoring our email, wiring the country so it knows what we get via broadband, glasses that will allow people to match what they see with databases of info on the people around them, cross referencing how we spend our money with all the other details in its databases, tracking us and recording all the places we go, there really isn’t any privacy.
White House or Congress?
The author stated: “two hundred IBM executives visited the White House”. I think the author intended to say that IBM executives visited the “Capitol Building” or “Congress”, not the White House.
Re: White House or Congress?
IIRC, they actually visited the White House on the way to Congress.
Lieberman
Why is Lieberman still in Congress? Wasn’t he set to retire?
Shit is hard to wipe off your shoes, I guess.
Result...
Anonymise your online activity, create fake paypal accounts and fake amazon accounts if you have to. Never give out your real details to any online organization. Even if it is simply spelling your surname wrong or the last digit of any numbers you give them.Like dob and drivers licence number.
If anything keep a folder with all your fake details in locked with a decent piece of software and never ever give the password to anyone.
Re: Result...
Anonymise your online activity, create fake paypal accounts and fake amazon accounts if you have to. Never give out your real details to any online organization. Even if it is simply spelling your surname wrong or the last digit of any numbers you give them.Like dob and drivers licence number.
If anything keep a folder with all your fake details in locked with a decent piece of software and never ever give the password to anyone.
A lot can be gleaned from your phone, even if it is turned off. And the people around you can be monitoring you, too. Even if they don’t identify you, technology can do the job for them. If you want to function in modern society, you are leaving a traceable trail.
All politicians
are open to bribery, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. It’s interesting to see them put out an actual price tag on bribes though. Bribery is endemic in our government, whether it’s Congress, the White House, the FTC, the DOJ, the SCOTUS, or the FCC. Special interest groups simply buy laws. We have the worst government money can buy.
Re: All politicians
are open to bribery, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. It’s interesting to see them put out an actual price tag on bribes though. Bribery is endemic in our government, whether it’s Congress, the White House, the FTC, the DOJ, the SCOTUS, or the FCC. Special interest groups simply buy laws. We have the worst government money can buy.
I think it is worth clarifying that this bribery often comes in the form of lobbying and campaign financing. I’d like to see those issues dealt with.
Congress can suck it.
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they have been. They suck on the teat of “donations” and pass laws screwing citizens over. Then they point out the guy challenging them would change x hot button issue to get reelected and we get screwed some more.
Why I think singling out government is misplaced concern
Karl Rove, Koch brothers lead charge to control Republican data – Kenneth P. Vogel and Maggie Haberman – POLITICO.com: “On its website, i360 boasts of maintaining a constantly updated database of over 187 million active voters and over 211 million consumers that ‘provides hundreds of data points on every American adult that is currently or potentially politically active.’?
I’m not worried. I sold congress information to third world countries for a cool billion. After all congress are the true terrorists.
Ahh America. For the government, by the government.
You massively over counted
The $84 million is all contributions from those contributors to those Congressmen, not just those contributions related to CISPA. Most of those contributors are interested in dozens or hundreds of bills besides CISPA, and most of that $84 million would be for pushing their positions on those other bills.
cispa BAD
we need an app that is anti data mining so if they are mining what we are doing online corrupt the Data or water it down by searching on random dictionary words, and phraises from books 24/7 in the system background. The idea is simple and needs further development but you know what I mean
Re: cispa BAD
This reminds me of the snippets of sex scenes from literary classics that were used in protest of the Communications Decency Act in 1996.
If enough people were willing to do it, we should do searches and append random strings of NSA hot-words, so that every quotidian missive is pinged for review.
Anon getting to much power…it’s started
Has government always been this way? Or have i just started caring?
Has government always been this way? Or have i just started caring?
Has government always been this way? Or have i just started caring?
All op
Mossad-op.
What else have they done?
9/11, US and Israel:
http://www.amazon.com/America-Deceived-II-Possession-interrogation/dp/1450257437
is a big, fat, outrageous scam. A few months ago I happened to place an order for a 20 page paper through their website. With ?transparent? writer reviews and ?affordable? prices, I thought I was making the best choice available. I was wrong. (A bit of background information: I am a senior in college who wanted a sample paper to help me complete my comps). When I first saw website, it didn?t seem horrible. They promised low prices and their writers seemed American or at least fluent in the English language (stupid me thinking that their writers? names were real). But what was advertised as $7.50 per page quickly spiraled into $25 and $30 per page. On top of that, I realized that if you didn?t buy from a pricey writer, your paper was going to be complete shit. Like illegible. Like an F. So after I placed my order with a writer named God-knows-what in real life, I sat and waited for my paper. I had written a draft of my paper already and was going to use this to ease the process. What I got was COMPLETE GARBAGE. The paper was formatted incorrectly, it didn?t reach the page limit I PAID FOR, and didn?t even address the topics I requested. I think assumes that students who use their service are complete idiots. Some may be. But I am not. I ordered a paper with them because I care about my grades (who doesn?t when paying 50K a year for school) and wanted to IMPROVE my dissertation. So, what did they do when I called to ask for a partial refund? They told ME that nothing could be done. That the terms and conditions I agreed too were set in stone and that it was my fault for having selected the writer that I did.
Essentially they told me that they can take my money but not offer a shred of accountability when one of their employees fucks up. WOW. And then here?s the best part: when I called to speak with someone about giving a negative review of their service, they told me they would find out where I go to school and make sure I would always regret speaking poorly about them. Real professional. So, as an aspiring computer programmer, A REALLY PISSED OFF CUSTOMER, and someone who doesn?t give a flying fuck that these scam artists have my contact information, I created this website to inform students around the world that is a scam. I encourage fellow students who have been scammed by this company to give their reviews on as well. The more reviews the merrier.
As I dug a deeper review of past, I found some pretty scary things. Like for instance that their writers are almost all Pakistani (over 30% of their daily web traffic comes from the country) and use FAKE AMERICAN NAMES to pretend they are native English speakers. Isn?t it time this bullshit be investigated? I don?t care what you think about paper writing services (whether you believe they are ethical or not) but at least take down the companies that are pure scams like
Click on this link and wow yourself:
That?s right, this website is one of the top 12,000 most viewed in FUCKING PAKISTAN.
Why? Because they are the ?English speaking writers? this fucked up company hires. I have also found evidence that suggests they have other writers in India and the Philippines. I know of a couple of companies that offer real English writers and I thought was one of them. Turns out they?re just a bunch of liars.
The scam is real. They are thieves who could care less about you. Maybe you?ve had a couple decent papers from them. But sleep well knowing that they will take any measure to screw you over.
That?s enough. Rant?s over. Fuck you,
Sincerely,
A VERY PISSED OFF FORMER CUSTOMER
Reviewed by Sean Evans on March 25,2013 ? Rating: 1.0
Miserable experience.They ripped me off for $600 for a dissertation and refuse to give me my money back.?
2 THOUGHTS ON
Taylor on June 4, 2013 at 10:52 PM said:
You are right. I have been debating with them for at least a month now, trying to get my refunds, it?s because the writer can?t even write shit or follow the prompt. Claimed to be ?professional? yeah right. They also claimed that they refunded my money already by just clearing out my balance. However, the email I received from money bookers still saying I was charged on that date. They lied & keep on saying ?your refunds should be in 4-6.? i waited & after 2 weeks, still nothing. I keep on checking back even though they closed my inquiry many times. I mean, I only uploaded $55 for the balance, but I didn?t use it. The money isn?t that a big deal, it?s just the writers & their service is poorly done. I cancelled the writer because 1. Passed deadline 2. The paper was off topic, completely vague, lacks development & much more. 3. way different from U.S writing style 4. Busy schedule & I just want to try how this service work. Personally, i definitely to not recommend this service.
Reply ↓
admin on June 20, 2013 at 9:42 PM said:
Thanks for your feedback, I?m glad to see that I?m not the only one.