Just days ago, I’ve received news from WikiLeaks that IBM and many other tech giants are lobbying for the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA), a bill initiated by the US Senate in early 2015.
CISA? What’s that?
In summary, CISA is yet another flawed cyber-security bill that has major issues with transparency and accountability. It is a bill that legalizes online mass-surveillance, which has been proven to be useless and a total waste of tax payers’ money. Companies supporting or lobbying this bill form a direct connection with the NSA and FBI (and many other government agencies); providing them with all sorts of data collected from their customers.
In less than 24 hours, nearly 15,000 people have emailed @Microsoft, @Apple, & other pro-#CISA companies to say http://t.co/Vs7BGnoqoM
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) September 23, 2015
IBM and my love for them
I had always been a fan of IBM and their progressive company’s ability to innovate and bring major technology paradigm shifts. How I became fascinated by this company was when I stumbled upon IBM’s supercomputer, Watson, which is a cognitive super computer that has the ability to solve complex problems and compute the results. It has the ability to understand human language, tone, slangs, etc. Then, I’ve researched more about IBM and found out about the innovations and researches they have contributed to man-kind.
Healthcare technology is reinventing how we treat obesity & chronic diseases. http://t.co/rJOIiENIqR #WatsonHealth pic.twitter.com/X0EdgPIy3y
— IBM Watson (@IBMWatson) September 23, 2015
IBM’s move to support this inhumane, rights-destroying bill made me feel very very disappointed. One of the few reasons they might have supported this bill is that this bill grants the tech giants lots of lucrative immunity from civil and criminal laws such as fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, or illegal wiretapping. I thought that IBM is a progressive and ethical tech giant. Looks like I was wrong, they’re just another corporation who doesn’t care about human rights and people. They only care about profits.
I’m really out of words and can’t express how extremely disappointed I am. IBM, with all due respect, go screw yourself.
Sources:
- Stop CISA: Join EFF in a Week of Action Opposing Broad “Cybersecurity” Surveillance Legislation
- You Betrayed Us
- CISA Bill
