Reviews mixed on legislation to protect consumers from spyware

By MedZilla Staff Writer

Marysville, WA - July 2, 2004--Congresswoman Mary Bono’s (R-CA) legislation to protect consumers from invasive and unsolicited spyware passed in the full House Energy and Commerce Committee June 24 and is expected to go before the full House of Representatives this year for final passage. Some say the legislation is a step in the right direction; while other consumer privacy experts claim it’s doomed to fail.

H.R. 2929, the “Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act” (SPY Act) proposes to protect you from unknowingly downloading spyware by requiring that you receive a clear and conspicuous notice before downloading spyware. The bill also includes provisions to inhibit unfair or deceptive behavior that could rob you of your privacy or the ability to use your computer effectively, such as key-stroke logging, computers highjacking and the display of advertisements that cannot be closed, Bono claims in a June 24 press release about the legislation.

Spyware is a terrible problem and it’s true that something needs to be done about it, says Frank Heasley, PhD, president and CEO of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that serves biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science.

“We’ve seen, first-hand, what it can do when clients call and tell us that they are having trouble using the MedZilla job board, when, in fact, their computers are paralyzed because they’ve unknowingly downloaded spyware.”

Moving in the right direction?

Jordana Beebe, communications director at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, San Diego, Calif., says the legislation seems a good move in that it requires your consent before spyware is loaded on your computers.

“One of the most problematic aspects of spyware right now is that people don’t know when it’s on their hard drive and when it has been loaded. It’s also difficult to locate once it is on your hard drive,” she says. “Definitely, making that process more transparent and requiring some sort of express consent before spyware can be downloaded is a step in the right direction.”

However, Beebe says that by allowing consent, it means that spyware has not been banned. “I don’t see where this makes spyware illegal, which of course, I think many people would prefer,” she says.

To some degree, some might say that this legislation legitimizes spyware by the very fact that it allows spyware to still be downloaded on your computers, according to Beebe. She says she is concerned that consumers might not understand the terms they read on the notices or know that spyware can compromise their computers’ security.

Or, doomed to fail?

Jim Harper, editor of Pirvacilla.org, a privacy think-tank, thinks the legislation is doomed to fail.

According to a Privacilla press release, the spyware legislation would not improve life for American consumers, and the act would only lamely attempt to outlaw spyware, requiring “unworkable and unwanted privacy notices.”

“Congress is poised to repeat some of its worst recent failures,” Harper says. “Congress didn’t eliminate spam with the CAN-SPAM law. Congress didn’t create privacy with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley law. But they’re at it again with spyware.”

The SPY Act would outlaw 20 software practices and require notice and consent procedures for information collection programs. But the legislation is aimed at people who don’t care what the law is and people who can’t be found, Harper says.

Dr. Heasley agrees. “The internet cannot police itself due to legal penalties for retaliation. The net result is that innocent users are at the mercy of those who break the laws because they do so with the impunity in the knowledge that they will not be prosecuted, and that if their victims fight back, it is the victims who will suffer at the hands of the government.”

Harper suggests that the solution to the problem is in technology. “Spyware is like spam. The people causing the problem can hide themselves from law enforcement. So, technical solutions are going to be what solves the spyware problem. The anti-virus companies are already adding anti-spyware capabilities to their products. It’s a big challenge to sort out spyware and other ‘malware’ from the good software, but they can do it.”

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