Expert: Scottgem - 3/27/2005

Question
Hi, I was reading an article about how Spyware operates on an individual PC and and came across the following quote,

"Spyware and Adware is software made by publishers that allow them to snoop on your browsing activity, invade your privacy, and flood you with those horrible popups. If you are like most users on the internet, chances are you are probably infected with these applications."

My question is that if there are any laws that contol the publishers of the software which snoops on our browsing activity, invade privacy as it says in the article, or at least punishments that apply to such publishers or any individual who created such software.

Thanks.
Saori

Answer
At this point, the legalties behind spyware and adware are very much a grey area. In most cases, you actually allow these things to be installed on your PCs. You may be installing something else, and buried deep in the license agreement is permission to install.

I do know that the US Federal government is looking into providing penalties for these, but no specific legislation has been enacted yet.

HTH
Scott<>