Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation cracking down on the fraudulent use of spyware, setting a five year sentence for anyone caught using the subversive software “in furtherance” of a federal criminal offense. See legislation here.
However, notably absent from the Internet Spyware (I-SPY) Prevention Act (sponsored by Silicon Valley Rep. Zoe Lofgren) is legislation allowing the government to regulate software companies. Why is this important? Lawmakers were hoping to force software manufacturers to get consent before uploading programs onto the computers of unsuspecting internet users (you and me). In swooped Zoe Lofgren like the Silver Surfer, and successfully argued that such an approach would “unfairly burden tech innovation.” Ultimately this regulation was left out of the bill.
I am sick and tired of spyware being uploaded to my computer and having to run programs like Spybot Search and Destroy. To me this is a complete invasion of privacy, especially since most of the time we don’t know something is running ’behind the scenes.’Â�
I fail to see how disclosing spyware installations would burden technology innovation’ can someone explain it to me?