Mozilla breaks ranks with Silicon Valley, comes out against CISPA

By Brendan Sasso - 05/02/12 02:04 PM ET

Mozilla, a nonprofit foundation that makes the popular Firefox Web browser, has come out against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), citing concerns over privacy.

The announcement puts Mozilla on the opposite side of the issue from many Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Symantec. Trade associations TechAmerica and the Information Technology Industry Council also back the bill.

"While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security," Alex Fowler, head of Mozilla's global privacy and public policy team, said in a statement. "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."

The goal of CISPA is to help companies beef up their defenses against hackers who steal business secrets, rob customers' financial information and wreak havoc on computer systems. The bill would remove legal barriers that discourage companies from sharing information about cyber threats.

The measure, which includes only voluntary procedures for sharing information and no mandates, has broad support in the private sector.

But privacy advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are lobbying against CISPA, warning that it would lead companies to hand over their customers' private information to military spy agencies.

The White House has threatened to veto CISPA, saying it lacks adequate privacy protections and fails to protect critical infrastructure, such as electrical grids, banks and chemical plants.

Despite the veto threat, the House approved CISPA last week on a vote of 248-168. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders back a bill from Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (Maine) that includes tougher privacy protections and would set mandatory security standards for critical infrastructure systems.

Mozilla's statement was first reported by Forbes.