Spyware soon to become criminal
Congress has set its sights on spyware.
The House of Representatives on Monday fired off a double barrel of legislation to fight spyware.
It passed the I-Spy act by a vote of 395 to 1 and the Spy act by 393 to 4. The bills take different approaches against spyware. Spyware is unwanted software with which hackers, scammers and firms track computer users' activities.
"I do believe before the end of the calendar year we will see federal spyware legislation (pass)," said David Moll, chief executive of anti-spyware vendor Webroot Software. "I'm confident that with the amount of attention legislators are paying to it, we're going to see something make it through."
I-Spy is formally the Internet Spyware Prevention Act of 2005. It's a bipartisan bill that would make some spyware activities criminal offenses. It also sets aside some money to fight computer abuses.
Spy is formally the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act. It's a Republican measure that would prohibit deceptive practices in spyware. It also calls for a strict opt-in policy. That is, consumers must give the OK before monitoring software can be used on their computers. And there has to be an easy way to turn the monitoring off.
The two bills' passage is a congressional version of try, try again. Both concepts passed the House in the last session and are up for another attempt in the full Congress. There are several paths they could take.
