The United States Senate on Tuesday passed the controversial Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), by a 74 to 21 margin. A similar bill has already passed in the House, and the two bills will likely be combined before heading to the White House for a signature from President Obama.
Apple, and other tech firms, had spoken out against the act, which would allow companies to share information about cybersecurity threats with each other, as well as the government. Privacy advocates had asked Congress to kill the bill, saying it hides “new government surveillance mechanisms in the guise of security protections.”
“We don’t support the current CISA proposal,” Apple said. “The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”
Tech companies, including Apple, Twitter, Yelp, Wikipedia, and more, opposed the bill. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, made up of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft, didn’t support the bill as written, and had urged the Senate to make changes in the bill.
