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Anti-Spyware Bill up for Vote in Congress
paul_friedman writes "According to Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives will vote as soon as next week on a measure to crack down on deceptive "spyware" that hides in users' computers and secretly monitors their activities."
What will the honest folk at claria (a.k.a. gator), "A Leader in On Line Behavioral Marketing", The do about this?
It'd really be nice to see this issue talked about in the more mainstream press, so that it gets a negative following like spam has. Might not solve it, but at least people will know it exists.
"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased. Thus we refute entropy" - Spider Robinson
So now it's going to be a crime to commit a crime?
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
yes, girls read /. too...
Yeah, but think of how nice it'll be when you mention spyware and people don't automatically go "What's that?"
Exactly the number of people who want to have weatherbug on their PC, the number of people who purposely download and install Claria products is ridiculous.
People want these things because it gives them cool things, they don't care what happens in the background.
I personally equate it to smoking, without the risks of using the product being fully known about or appreciated.
Perhaps the preventative measures taken against such adware products should be similar to smoking. Large, prominent notices being required, detailing the risks of using the software, perhaps higher taxes on companies deemed to be adware firms.
Unfortunately the ability to label such problematic software is, well, problematic.
Yes, because world domination will solve all our problems.
Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it make more sense to create an agency (in the manner of the FCC or CRTC) with the mandate to regulate these types of activities? That one agency, given the ability to pass regulations as the FCC has, would be able to regulate things like SPAM, Spyware, and other interests (viruses perhaps?). They could impose fines for companies that write programs to do this kind of work, publish lists of software banned under the regulations, and so forth.
Just like the acts that created the CRTC and the FCC, it would be a simple matter for Congress to say 'there is a problem, you guys handle it', rather than having to learn the full issue every time something needs to be done.
--Dan
The argument will be that it is easy to uninstall it. Just re-load Windows.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The article is actually rather devoid of information. If you want real data, you gotta go to the source: The Library of Congress.
For example, many articles in this thread have talked about them burying the the notice in the EULA. From the House bill:
The notice clearly distinguishes such notice from any other information visually presented contemporaneously on the protected computer.
They call that "clear and conspicuous notice in plain language", and it goes on from there.
As for enforcement: there's less spyware than spam. Spyware takes time to write, and it takes time to make it useful enough that dumb users install it. Claria is easily tracked down, and if they don't ask "This program will collect and transmit information about you. Do you accept?", they go to jail. Stupid users will click anyway, but "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain" (Frederick Schiller).
The solution isn't perfect: some malware writers will just move offshore, for example. But I have reason to believe that this legislation will do at least some good.
"The U.S. House of Representatives will vote as soon as next week on a measure to crack down on deceptive "spyware" that hides in users' computers and secretly monitors their activities."
This one is a slam dunk. I mean, what government offical wants their computer to secretly monitored??? ^_^
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