CISPA Bars Companies From Guaranteeing Customers' Privacy

This is the government "helping" us

Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other Internet companies and e-mail providers will be prohibited from making legally binding promises to protect your privacy, thanks to a vote this afternoon in the U.S. House of Representatives.

By a 5-8 vote, the House Rules committee rejected a bipartisan fix to the CISPA data-sharing bill that would have ensured companies' privacy promises -- including their terms of use and privacy policies -- remained valid and legally enforceable in the future.

The vote came after Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican who's the committee's influential chairman, urged his colleagues to vote against the amendment (PDF). All of the committee's eight GOP members voted against the amendment, and all the Democrats supported it. (See CNET's CISPA FAQ.)