Many privacy advocates are emboldened by the threat by the Whitehouse to veto CISPA. However, a careful read of the Whitehouse memo on CISPA reveals that many of the core problems that the Whitehouse has with CISPA are not, necessarily, civil liberties concerns. In several places the Whitehouse states that their objections to CISPA rise from the view that CISPA places too many constraints on information sharing.

The administration does start off by stating that they want to require that irrelevant personal information be removed from data shared under CISPA.

The Administration, however, remains concerned that the bill does not require private entities to take reasonable steps to remove irrelevant personal information when sending cybersecurity data to the government or other private sector entities.

This is an important civil liberties concern with CISPA. However, it isn't the only one.

The Whitehouse then goes on to complain that another problem they have with CISPA is that it allows private companies to place constraints on how the government will use the information that has been shared.

Intra-governmental sharing and use should not be subject to undue restrictions by the private sector companies that originally share the information.

This is an obvious reference to the following section of CISPA:

USE AND PROTECTION OF INFORMATION- Cyber threat information shared in accordance with paragraph (1)--

‘(A) shall only be shared in accordance with any restrictions placed on the sharing of such information by the protected entity or self-protected entity authorizing such sharing, including appropriate anonymization or minimization of such information and excluding limiting a department or agency of the Federal Government from sharing such information with another department or agency of the Federal Government in accordance with this section;

I think this section speaks volumes about the way that our government puts the interests of institutions before those of individuals. If I, as an individual person, enter into a contract with a company and share my personal information with them under that contract, no term of that contract can constrain that company from sharing that information with the government under CISPA. However, under the current text of CIPSA, that company can constrain the government's use of that information when the company shares the information with the government. The government has to uphold the company's terms, but no one has to uphold my terms.

The problem that the Obama Whitehouse has is that the government would have to uphold the company's terms. They want fewer restrictions regarding what they can do with the data.

In fact, the administration makes it clear that they agree that privacy laws need to be eliminated so that private companies can share more information with the government.

The Administration agrees with the need to clarify the application of existing laws to remove legal barriers to the private sector sharing appropriate, well-defined, cybersecurity information. Further, the Administration supports incentivizing industry to share appropriate cybersecurity information by providing the private sector with targeted liability protections.

Their concern about liability limitation hinges on the fact that they want to require more information sharing and the liability limitation might prevent them from holding companies responsible when they fail to share information:

However, the Administration is concerned about the broad scope of liability limitations in H.R. 624. Specifically, even if there is no clear intent to do harm, the law should not immunize a failure to take reasonable measures, such as the sharing of information, to prevent harm when and if the entity knows that such inaction will cause damage or otherwise injure or endanger other entities or individuals.

Given that the Whitehouse:
A. Doesn't address the core civil liberties concerns with CISPA.
B. States that they want fewer restrictions on government use of data shared under CISPA.
C. States that they want to eliminate privacy laws in the cybersecurity context.
D. States that they want to hold companies responsible if they fail to share enough information.

I think its fair to say that the Whitehouse is not on the side of civil liberties advocates regarding this legislation, no matter how much lip service has been paid to that notion.

The Whitehouse is NOT on the side of civil liberties advocates regarding CISPA