Comments on: FTC to shine light on spyware

Growing consumer frustration sparks industry fears of new laws limiting software development.

[Peterbkz]

FTC to shine light on spyware

Its high time that spyware is regulated. I have taken the time to install on my computer various spyware defences. The effect is that so many homepages don't open anymore. I don't care, because there is always a site that will give me the information I want. The others try mostly to set intrusive cookies, which are rejected. I have even written to a number of sites, telling them that they either stop cooperating mostly with advertisers, that send this kind of intrusive microprograms, or else I shall not be able to visit their pages anymore. I clearly tell them that I am interested in advertising, as this is one form of information to keep abreast with the developments in the technology field, but without the intrusion into the privacy sphere. Most have not replied, a clear indication that they prefer the intrusive advertisers over their customers. But time will tell, how long such sites will be able to act in such a way.

On top of all I have many friends and customers who are equally fedup with these practices and ask me to install the same defences on their computers. The stone keeps rolling.
Peter006

Good point!

I never thought spyware was more than pesky till I went to this friend of mine, who claimed that he was being charged tens of megs of info each month by his ISP even though he did not transmit a thing to the net...
I went through the tedious job of cleaning his machine.
Found some 20-25 different types of spyware. Furthermore, his 1GHz Athlon was running annoyingly slow. Somewhat the speed of a 450 Pentium II.
After cleaning the mess, he told me he felt as if he had a new computer.
Yes, spyware & addware definitely need regulations! And enforced rules too!
After all it is definitely stealing money from people's pockets, as most ISP's charge trafic.

[Fireweaver]

Who Cares?

Oh, thank goodness the government is rushing in to save the computer user again! Now we'll all be completely rid of spyware just like we are rid of spam.
Oh, we're not rid of spam? Maybe it's another feckless ploy of politicians that have no clue but want to look good during election time, then.

I care, for one...

Someone said that legislation will not solve the problems of adware and spyware becuase many advertisers will not be affected. The laws of the United States do not pass across its borders and most of the crap we deal with on a day to day basis come from other points around our globe. But any help in curtailing the mass amounts of garbage I am forced to see whether I want to or not, and the time it takes to carefully maintain my computer against Hijacking and subversion is important, not only to me but to many employers who rely on people to actually have time TO GET work done. I welcome the day that they take some of these worthless purveyors of internet garbage out of business. Maybe, at that point the internet can get back to what it was intended for and NOT some huge infomercial for every product known to man!

[FLATFOOT]

SPYWARE

As long as politicians can be bought and the parasites of society are able to work off shore, no meaningfull legislation will ever be enacted.

[Steven N]

Being smart helps

It is fairly easy to remain spyware free. All you have to do is using the right tools and take care on what you install on your PC.

I am using Mozilla/Netscape 7.1 now for 2 years to go to the WWW, and every time I do a Spyware check I get zero of them... with basically no modifications to the default configuration of Mozilla. Popups are disabled, third party cookies are not allowed, and some restrictions on Java scripts are present. I don't remember how many of these settings were default, but quite a few of them are.

I am sure you can get IE to be as safe as Mozilla, but I wouldn't know where to start, and how long it would take me to get to the same level of security as the default settings of Mozilla.

The reason why IE has all these exploitable "features" and Mozilla hasn't is because of the tools are created for two different customers.
Mozilla is made for the one that is using it to get on the WWW, and get his or her information they want. So the customer is the user.
IE is also made for the customer, but in this case the customers are big corporations. And those corporations want their stuff to be handled by IE.
eg. HP is able to configure a complete PC by using IE, ISPs are able to configure your network connection using a web page, ... This has got nothing to do with a user that wants to surf the Internet, it is just those big corporations that want to cut back on support costs, that asks for all these "features" being present.
Sure, you can explain it as a benefit to customer, but is also comes with exploitable "features" that are not that beneficial.

[tbbrickzd]

Hear! Hear! for Mozilla!!!

Have my EUs on Netscape which helps keep us (thank the Creator) from spyware/virii problems. Nevertheless, I'm not an idiot, I do have Spybot S&D on all PCs and have run it periodically.

Since you like Netscape 7.1, do give Firefox 0.8 a go. http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ Have been running it for about four months now and is it *sweet*. The Adblock extension is the icing on the cake. You can use wildcards with the domains and it really speeds things up. I just hate it when I have to use a EU's browser without it.

[tbbrickzd]

FTC: Thx, but No Thx...

As if the FTC, or anyone in anybody's gov't can do anything about any form of computer malware.

I've much more faith in my firewall, antivirus sw, antispyware sw, and antispam sw to keep the idiots at bay, than the gov't.

[Almost Private]

Balancing Act

There is a solution, but it is not an easy one to figure out, implement, or enforce. We have to figure out how to balance commercial speech rights with individual privacy rights, plus a number of other factors. This is not as easy as it may appear, regardless of which side you support.

If you want to find out more about what is going on in this area instead of making conclusory, cynical comments about politicians, I have provided a variety of articles on Spyware/Adware (both general and more specific), privacy concerns (14th amendment), and current and past legislative actions and the problems/concerns/solutions proposed/imposed. Perhaps these articles will help promote a more objective approach from readers, not just their own subjective viewpoints, which gets us nowhere.

2004 State Legislation Relating to Internet Spyware or Adware, available at http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/spyware04.htm

Will Adware and Spyware Prompt Congressional Action? (Or - Why does my computer's CD tray open for no apparent reason?), available at http://www.winstead.com/articles/articles/ClientAlert_Adware_040504.pdf

Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act, HR 2929 IH, available at http://thomas.loc.gov/

(NOTE: In Word/Phrase box, search for "HR 2929 IH".)

File-Sharing: A Fair Share? Maybe Not, FTC Consumer Alert, Federal Trade Commission, available at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/sharealrt.htm

Does Online Privacy 'Really' Matter? 'No' According to Consumers, byEric Goldman
from CircleID Privacy Matters, September 12, 2003, available at http://www.circleid.com/print/250_0_1_0/

[Almost Private]

14th Amendment

To read more about privacy and the 14th amendment, a good place to begin is here:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/personal_autonomy.html

[ascrodin]

destroy spyware and adware

whenU and gator must be destroyed!!!!!! no more spyware!!!! thank god for ad-aware and spybot. hopefully this new law will make the ads stop. computers everywhere will run so much faster.