The bill passed by a voice vote in the House this week is a less
radical law than some of the alternative proposals that have been
circulating House committees. It does not contain a demand that
users be notified before software is installed, a crucial element
of a similar bill.
The bill creates a penalty of up to five years in jail for
people using spyware to commit fraud.
Spyware is a collective term for software that gathers
information about computer users. At its most benign it delivers
unwanted advertising. At its most dangerous it allows a third party
to learn usernames, passwords and account details and defraud the
user.
It is most commonly downloaded as an unannounced component of
free software, as a part of downloaded games or as a result of a
virus.
A competing bill which recently received the endorsement of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee was more stringent. It required
the distributors of programs to notify users and obtain their
consent before a piece of software was downloaded. The software
industry opposed that element of the proposed bill.
The House has twice before proposed anti-spyware legislation,
but each time the Senate did not approve the new laws.
Spyware can be illegal in the UK under the Computer Misuse Act
and adware can fall foul of the Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations if it is installed by stealth.
