Spyware beware in Utah.With a law enacted this spring, Utah became the first state to prohibit "spyware," software installed on a computer without the owner's consent. The law bans programs that send personal information from individual computers, as well. California, Iowa, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Virginia also are looking at similar legislation. Congress has joined the fray with a bill, Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge (known as Spyblock). It would require notice and consent before such pro grams could be put on a computer. And South Carolina's U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings Ernest Frederick "Fritz" Hollings (born January 1 1922) served as a Democratic United States Senator from South Carolina from 1966 to 2005. Early life Hollings was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He went to The Citadel and received a B.A. has included a section on spyware in a comprehensive bill to establish privacy standards for the Internet. Spyware, called "adware" by its proponents is software that can show tip in a computer when the owner signs tip for a free service like a file-sharing network or has agreed to receive messages in return for access to a Web site. Spyware usually delivers pop-up ads, sometimes pornographic, to the unsuspecting consumer, but it can have other, more malevolent ma·lev·o·lent adj. 1. Having or exhibiting ill will; wishing harm to others; malicious. 2. Having an evil or harmful influence: malevolent stars. functions. Sometimes PCs become sluggish because of the added computing burden of the unwanted programs. And some spyware monitors Internet use or even can record keystrokes, such as password entries. Utah's law has already been challenged by WhenU.com, a New York company that puts Internet advertising Delivering ads to Internet users via Web sites, e-mail, ad-supported software and Internet-enabled cellphones. Also called an "ad network," Internet advertising organizations act as a middleman between the advertiser and the Web sites and software publishers that display the ads. software on people's machines. Other online companies weren't exactly enthusiastic either. The legislation, "while well-intentioned, would have serious unintended consequences For the "Law of unintended consequences", see Unintended consequence Unintended Consequences is a novel by author John Ross, first published in 1996 by Accurate Press. on everyday, legitimate activities on the Internet," a coalition of companies, including America Online See AOL. , Amazon.com, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, warned in a letter to Utah officials. Utah Representative Stephen H. Urquhart Stephen H. Urquhart is an American politician from Utah. A Republican, he is a member of the Utah State House, representing the state's 75th house district in St. George. He currently serves as Chairman of the House Rules Committee. , the bill's sponsor, said the law focuses on giving computer owners notice of what is being done to their machines and the opportunity to refuse the software or easily remove it. "I'm convinced over 75 percent of the people who have it on their computers have no idea it's there," he says. |
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