A bill to ban companies from installing spyware covertly and from distributing software that can leak user information without advance user knowledge, is going to the full U.S. Senate, after the Senate Commerce Committee approved a modified version September 22.
“When I purchase a computer and install it in my home, I expect to be the only one who has access to it,” said the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana), after the committee vote. “But it has become common practice for online spies to bury themselves in computer systems and watch every move computer users make. This legislation gives control back to those who should have it—it protects computer users from those potentially devastating spies and the surreptitious programs they want to install.”
Primary enforcement authority would go to the Federal Trade Commission. A similar bill is expected to face a vote in the House of Representatives next week.
“Too many American computer users are getting hit with secret, ‘drive-by’ downloads that invade their privacy and usurp control of their computer systems,” said a second co-sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon). “[The bill] tells software peddlers that these high-tech hijackings aren’t acceptable any more.”
Known as the Spy Block Act, the modified bill also prohibits tricking users with misleading lures into installing software, including misrepresenting who provides it or what it does. The bill also bars installing software that blocks "reasonable efforts" to uninstall or disable it by the computer user. Finally, it also bars installing software causing ads to appear without identifying their source, and "knowingly engaging" in practices blocking user control over his or her own computer.
That latter was a particular concern of the bill's third co-author, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California). “This… will give consumers control over the programs that are downloaded onto their computers and ensure that people are protected from hazardous software," Boxer said after the vote. "As more and more people use the Internet, privacy violations become a greater threat, and we want to make sure that our constituents are not unknowingly being taken advantage of and spied on by hackers.”
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) was the fourth co-sponsor of the Spy Block Act.
The Center for Democracy and Technology said that while current fraud statutes should be enforced "robustly" against spyware distributors, creative ways were needed to address spyware through a combine of law, technology, public education and industry initiatives.
