Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) proposed this week a “digital bill of rights” to protect the privacy of internet users from intrusive legislation, according to a report by The Hill newspaper.
Wyden argued the digital bill of rights proposal would give more power to average Internet users. He said many lawmakers show no interest in gaining a basic understanding of how the internet works before trying to regulate it.
Issa has posted a draft of the digital citizen’s bill of rights proposal on his website keepthewebopen.com and is seeking comments on the draft. “We need to frame a digital bill of rights”, he said on the website.
Sen. Wyden has been an ardent opponent of legislation he considers intrusive, such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). In a speech opposing CISPA, Wyden warned that CISPA and similar legislation pose a “false choice” between privacy rights and secure networks.
“Bad Internet policy is increasingly premised on false choices…there is no sound policy reason to sacrifice the privacy rights of law abiding American citizens in the name of cyber-security", he said in a speech on the Senate floor.