At the Congress of the United States begun and held in New York, on March 4, 1789, several States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, wanted to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers by adding further declaratory and restrictive clauses.
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution in its original form is as follows:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights ratified on December 15, 1791.
This amendment tries to protect two fundamental liberty interests – the right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary invasions. It guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially allowed and supported by probable cause.
Now, the United States Government is attempting to control and censor the internet by passing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a law that would allow for the sharing of Internet traffic information among the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies.
The stated aim of the bill is to help the U.S government investigate cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyber attacks. This bill would allow major internet entities such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to share voluntarily our personal information with the U.S. Government. This will not only affect users in the United States, but also anyone with an account with these companies.
As written, CISPA will not protect us from cyber threats, but will violate our Fourth Amendment’s right to our privacy, and freedom from arbitrary invasions.
- It lets the government to spy on us without a warrant.
- Companies cannot be sued when they do illegal things using our data.
- It allows companies and corporations to cyber attack one another and harm individual people outside the law.