Specifically the bill would allow Internet companies to "identify and obtain cyber threat information to protect [their] rights and property."

CISPA would allow private companies to monitor user activity and collect information related to such activity. The data could also be shared, without judicial oversight, with government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency.

The bill affords Internet companies a great deal of immunity for conducting such information monitoring and sharing.

Rights groups say that the bill's ambiguous wording leaves it open to all sorts of potential problems.

For instance, there's no language that would prohibit companies from monitoring private email messages, chat messages and Facebook postings simply by claiming a cybersecurity purpose. CISPA doesn't provide Internet users maany ways to sue companies for unfairly collecting and sharing personal information with the government.