By Declan McCullagh, 12 May 2005 09:40
NEWS The US Senate has pledged to tackle the growing threat of spyware. During a hearing on Wednesday, politicians said spyware was a growing threat that required prompt action by Congress.
Last year, an anti-spyware bill died while awaiting a Senate floor vote. Now members of the Senate Commerce Committee are promising to avoid a repeat of last year's lapse.
These are "insidious programs that install themselves on users' computers," said Senator Barbara Boxer. "It's hard to use analogies with this, but it's sort of like somebody walking around your house, kind of invisibly."
Boxer acknowledged that the Federal Trade Commission already has been suing alleged spyware distributors, but said: "I think we have to do more than that. Clearly it's still going on even though there have been lawsuits filed."
It's not clear, though, how much a new federal law can accomplish. The Can-Spam Act of 2003 hasn't exactly eliminated junk email so far, and both the FTC and the Justice Department say they already have the power to investigate and punish the worst offenders. Also, no US law can hope to reach offshore websites.
Senator Ron Wyden said: "The last major effort we made was with respect to spam, and this is a much more serious problem. With spam you can hit the delete button. With this stuff it crashes your system."
If a federal spyware measure does clear Congress this year, technology and advertising companies are hoping to ensure that it will pre-empt state laws and set a uniform national rule.
Trevor Hughes of the Network Advertising Initiative - a consortium of large internet advertisers - told the Senate panel on Wednesday: "A national platform for legitimate businesses to work from is necessary. Any legislation must be focused on the behaviour of spyware, and that is fraud and deception."
Declan McCullagh writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There is 1 comment. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Spyware and Spam will not just disappear.
IT seems that this issue of both Spyware and Spam is not going to just disappear. It is a growing problem and threat to any computer, network and computer users across the globe.
Individual countries independent actions and legal systems are not going to resolve this issue.
Until there is a global policy that every country will follow then we will never remove this problem, or even get it under control
At this time international laws to combat these problems do not exist, and until they are in place and upheld then Spamers and Spyware software will be an ongoing and every increasing problem.
The CanSpam Law that the United States brought in may have been seen by some as an attempt to control the problem, however, it never will. And the excuse that it cannot be applied to other countries is not valid. The law itself is inherently flawed. The concept of the law should be in the opposite direction to what it currently is.
The primary spamers and spyware may come from Servers that are based in countries outside of the areas that have tried to control it. But the people running them and making the money are in the countries that do have some laws in place.
“Cut off the head and the body dies” was once and expression used on how to shut down larger organisations doing illegal action.
That still applies in many ways.
Hit the people and organisation that are making the money. And you will control the problem.
Money obtained from dealing in drugs is confiscated. Well the same thing should be done to the spamers. Hit their pockets hard. This will deter them to some degree.
The Internet has now generated and International and Global Network that is not stopped by the International Boundaries of Independent Countries Borders.
With each country trying to apply there own policy to control the Internet and all that transpires on it.
So what are needed are an International Policies and Laws that EVERY country will follow, abide to and uphold.
What is needed is an International Global Agency that could regulate International laws on the Internet.
But as there is little chance of this in the foreseeable future, then the problem of spamming, spyware, International fraud, and the many other problems and Internet Scams will always be there