Congress is deciding right now whether to include the CLOUD Act in the must-pass government spending bill. S. 2383 and H.R. 4943 would give police in the US and overseas direct access to data held by big tech companies. Laila Follow Mar 16, 2018 · 3 min read

TL;DR: Congress is deciding right now whether to put the CLOUD Act, a dangerous bill that gives police access to data held by big tech companies, into the must-pass omnibus spending bill that will be voted on next week. Read more from FFTF, EFF, or ACLU then CONTACT YOUR REPS!

Congress may soon sneak a 5-week-old bill that threatens global privacy into law.

The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act has serious privacy implications and hasn’t even been reviewed or debated by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but now it’s supporters are trying to rush it through Congress and into law.

Major tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Oath are supporting the bill because it makes their lives easier by relinquishing their responsibility to protect their users’ data from cops. And they’ve been throwing their lobby power behind getting the CLOUD Act attached to the omnibus government spending bill.

If the CLOUD Act gets added to the omnibus bill, there will be little to zero chance to amend it.

If passed, the the CLOUD Act (S. 2383 and H.R. 4943) would:

Give U.S. law enforcement the power to access our data anywhere in the world, no matter what country that data is stored in, while bypassing current privacy requirements.

Allow the U.S. president to enter international agreements, without Congressional approval, that allow foreign governments to directly obtain data in the U.S. — while ignoring U.S. privacy laws.

Give foreign states new spying powers inside the U.S.

Allow foreign governments to collect data directly from U.S. companies without requiring a U.S. warrant.

Read more about the CLOUD Act from EFF here and here, and the ACLU here and here.

We can stop this if we show Congressional leadership just how controversial the CLOUD act is. But we need to act now because they’re deciding on the final version of the omnibus bill right now:

Sign this petition telling your members of Congress to oppose the CLOUD Act and any attempts to add it to the omnibus bill.

Call Congress using the Congressional switchboard number: (202) 224–3121

Tell your representative and both of your senators: Please oppose the CLOUD Act and any attempts to add it the omnibus bill.

Text CLOUD to 384–387 to send a message directly to your lawmakers. (Data and message rates apply. Text STOP to stop receiving messages.)

Email, message or call Senate and House appropriators and tell them to keep the CLOUD Act out of the omnibus bill. These are the offices that will make the decision:

Senate Appropriations chair Senator Thad Cochran: Email, tweet or call: (202) 224–5054

Senate Appropriations vice-chair Senator Patrick Leahy: Email, tweet or call: (202) 224–4242

House Appropriations chair Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen: Email, tweet or call: (202) 225–5034