While many tech companies have thrown their support towards CISPA, Mozilla has taken the road less traveled, at least by the tech industry, blasting CISPA for having too much reach and being a direct threat to individual privacy. Considering Mozilla was just as outspoken against SOPA/PIPA, perhaps there position shouldn’t be surprising.
But then again, when you consider the support CISPA has received from the telecommunications industry, it appears as if Mozilla is the outlier here. Aside from Facebook’s support–hey anti-CISPA folks, where’s the Facebook mass exodus?–other CISPA supporters from the tech industry reads like a who’s who of industry giants. These include Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Dell, just to name a few. With that in mind, Mozilla position regarding the tech industry appears to be in the minority.
In a statement to Forbes.com, Mozilla’s position on CISPA was spelled out in no uncertain terms:
While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security. The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation.
When you compare Mozilla’s position to Facebook’s, you see both companies are interested in a safer, more secure Internet. The difference between the two is Mozilla is not willing to sacrifice personal privacy for an incredibly broad piece of legislation, whereas, Facebook’s management team is.
Which side of the coin are you on?
As for the Facebook mass exodus I mentioned earlier, it’s clearly not happening. Apparently people are just fine with sacrificing their personal privacy, just as long as they can share and “Like” mundane information–OMG!!! Look how cute we look playing beer pong!!!!!!!–with friends they never would’ve had without the explosion of social media. A worthy sacrifice, wouldn’t you say?
In other news, is Google ever going to reveal their position on controversial piece of legislation?