A federal crackdown is moving forward against software applications that hide in computers and monitor users’ activity, now that the House Commerce and Energy Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Transportation has passed a bill requiring spyware senders to notify users before slipping the stealthy programs onto their computers.
Full committee chairman Rep. Joseph Barton (R-Texas) has predicted the bill would move through the full House fast enough that it could become law before the end of the year.
The bipartisan bill, written by Reps. Mary Bono (R-California) and Ed Towns (D-New York) would mandate spyware be removable more easily, and would also let the Federal Trade Commission chase the more nefarious spywares, like keystroke loggers, and slap them with millions in fines, according to the language of the bill.
"We continue to meet people who have had their Web pages hijacked, their browsers corrupted, and in some cases their children exposed to inappropriate material via nefarious programs lurking on their hard drives," subcommittee chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Florida) told reporters after the bill passed his panel.
In April, Center for Democracy and Technology chair Ari Schwartz told the subcommittee that privacy was the fundamental issue surrounding the spyware controversy. "Legislation to address the collection and sharing of information on the Internet would resolve many of the privacy issues raised by spyware," Schwartz testified. "If we do not deal with the broad Internet privacy concerns now, in the context of spyware, we will undoubtedly find ourselves confronted by them yet again when they are raised anew by some other, as yet unanticipated, technology."
Schwartz had also testified that spyware can affect or even damage computer performance and stability. "In many cases," he told the subcommittee, "consumers mistakenly assume that the problem is with another application or with their Internet provider, placing a substantial burden on the support departments of providers of those legitimate applications and services."
Stearns said Congress wanted to produce a bill not too overly prescriptive but aimed specifically at "egregious practices," while preserving "legitimate uses." But the FTC has told Congress new legislation isn't really needed just yet – the FTC already has the regulatory ability it needs to fight spyware, fearing this bill would end up being more of a problem for legitimate software sellers, who use similar technology that helps Internet navigation.
