New website makes it clear who in Washington respects your privacy

With so many technology bills named in purposefully confusing ways, it can sometimes be hard to tell which members of Congress respect Americans’ rights to online privacy. A duo of grass-roots privacy groups aims to change that with a website dedicated to providing a clear portrait of lawmakers’ government surveillance records.

The website, sponsored by Restore The Fourth and Fight for the Future, rates lawmakers in the House and Senate based on how they’ve voted on surveillance legislation since Congress doubled down on attempts to increase government’s online spying power around 2012.

Lawmakers are profiled on a “scoreboard” under the category of either “Team Internet” or “Team Surveillance” based on how they voted on controversial bills such as the PATRIOT Act renewal, the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 and others.

“Ever since Edward Snowden exposed the NSA’s worst abuses, members of Congress from both political parties have been under intense pressure from the public to rein in the U.S. government’s runaway surveillance programs,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future. “The scoreboard makes it impossible for them to hide any longer; politicians from both sides of the aisle who attempt to block meaningful reform on this issue should expect to pay the price come election time.”

The website also scores lawmakers on a grading system based on bills they’ve sponsored or supported to affect electronic privacy for better or worse.

Of the 535 members of Congress profiled on website:

• Just 24 senators had “A” records when it comes to protecting digital privacy
• 34 senators, meanwhile, received “F’s” for their attempts to pass spy legislation
• 40 percent of members of the GOP-controlled House received an “A”
• Just 10 representatives were given an “F” in privacy protection

“We wanted to develop something simple and easy that would allow users to quickly see which politicians oppose mass surveillance, and who’s working to expand the surveillance state” says Alex Marthews, national chair of Restore The Fourth.

The website, Decidethefuture.org, also allows visitors to see where state lawmakers stand on the issue of electronic privacy.

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