In light of the recent proposed CISPA bill, HR 3523, I have written my House Representative Ralph Hall the following letter. I encourage you to do the same if you feel that this bill would be potentially detrimental to online privacy.

Dear Mr. Hall,

I am writing you in regards to the proposed bill HR 3523, better known as CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Having reviewed the wording of the proposed bill myself, as well as the abundant media coverage and analysis from dozens of other sources I write to express my concern over what I consider to be a dangerously broad and unspecific proposal of power to our federal government and the corporate private sector.

As a professional in the computer software industry I am well aware of the issues surrounding cyber security and understand how difficult it is to track, rectify and prevent criminal cyber attacks in software and network systems. As an “average Joe” I have had my personal web site attacked by foreign persons, family members who have lost money from identity theft, and gone through the pain of trying to “secure” software from perceived threats.

I do not, however, feel that such broad powers given by language as vague as “…theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information” is the answer in a world greedy, patent portfolio-strengthening corporations, ever concerned about copyright infringement affecting the bottom line. I feel this type of response to cyber security issues is far too knee-jerk, and requires a great deal of analysis and consensus from more than just large corporate entities with an interest in protecting IP. I’m talking about some of the companies backing this bill, i.e. AT&T, Microsoft, Dell, Facebook, Verizon, Oracle, all of which recently have been involved in IP, copyright, or patent lawsuit.

I urge you and all members of the House to abandon this bill and instead find security experts who do not have a dollar attached to some IP lawsuit, but have the privacy and rights of the average netizen in mind. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, Adam Presley Concerned citizen