FTC Threatens Spyware Distributors With Prison

Federal regulator Mark Pryor, in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, has stated that spyware distributors should face harsher penalties than fees. His solution: imprisonment. "Federal Trade Commissioner William Kovacic said most wrongdoers in the spyware arena 'can only be described as vicious organized criminals. Many of most serious wrongdoers we observed in this area, I believe, are only going to be deterred if their freedom is withdrawn,' so it's important for the FTC to collaborate on its cases with criminal law enforcement authorities, Kovacic said."

Re:Making the punishment fit the crime

[daterabytez]

I think spyware writers are more foul than virus writers: while virus writers do what they do for the technical thrill and bother a lot of people in the process, spyware writers do it just to get money.

Actually, there was a time when this was probably true, but no longer. A great many viruses and exploits today, well over half, are purely for financial gains. The recent ANI exploit is just one example [bbc.co.uk].

-Carl

Re:Windows??

[Mukunda_NZ]

Well actually when you update Windows, an encrypted list of all installed software is sent to Microsoft, at least with XP, and I'm sure Vista would do they same. I believe also, though I'm not sure, that Windows Media Player reports on you too.

Re:Ubuntu has spyware in it..

[J0nne]

How is that spyware? It sends anonymous statistics on what packages you have installed throught apt, and you have to choose to enable it.

It does exactly what it claims it does, and you really have to go out of your way to enable it (add/remove software>preferences>statistics>enable popularity contest )

Right under the checkbox there's a clear explanation of what it does:

To improve the user experience of Ubuntu please take part in the popularity contest. If you do so the list of installes software and how often it was used will be collected and sent anonymously to the uubuntu project on a weekly basis.
 
The results are used to improve support for popular applications in the search results

Compare that to Windows update, which 'inspects your system' every time you update, and you have no way to know what exactly it's inspecting, and what it's sending back to MS.

You're probably trolling, and I'm probably wasting my time, but someone modded you up, so I guess at least one person believed you.

Re:Ubuntu has spyware in it..

[asninn]

That doesn't make it spyware. I assume most distros (desktop-oriented ones, anyway) also install things like Firefox by default, which - suprise! - sends information on my system to websites when I visit them. But that doesn't make Firefox spyware, simply because it only does so when I tell it to; the situation would be quite different, however, if it did so on its own in the background.

Without knowing anything about popcon really, I think it's safe to say that as long as it has to be EXPLICITELY enabled and/or started by the user, it's not spyware.

Re:Ubuntu has spyware in it..

[eMbry00s]

Does it do things without the users consent? If it doesn't (and it obviously doesn't since it is disabled) then it is not spyware. The Last.fm music tracking is similar to spyware in function, but users install it willingly and it is therefore not spyware.

Re:Windows??

[Nightspirit]

I don't have the link on hand, but a quick google should find it. I believe the info sent to MS is an xml with actually very little information.

Re:Windows??

[walt-sjc]

Oh it's pretty clear. The partner / boyfriend should be faced with jail time if it is not his computer. If it is, then it's not so clear. If the keystroke logger (A) is installed automatically with no warning or the installer's knowledge as part of another application (B), then the publisher of B should be liable. If the BF/partner installs the logger with full knowledge of what it does, then the onus falls on the BF. Cookies are not applications and wouldn't fall under the category of "program" or "application."

Mark Pryor is a Senator . . .

[Dausha]

We need better fact checking here. Mark Pryor is the junior senator from Arkansas. The FTC official is William Kovacic.

Re:Ubuntu has spyware in it..

[WrongSizeGlass]

it does absolutely nothing unless you turn it on.

If I had a nickel for every time I've used that line on a date I'd be a happy man ;-)


warning: The above content tests positive for sarcasm and/or is a failed attempt at humor and should be taken with a pound of salt.

Re:Interesting challenge.Not for Direct Revenue

[Anonymous Coward]

It will be a long time before it comes to that. The FTC can't even assess a decent fine [ftc.gov] for clear violations of existing spyware laws. Think about it, these guys got off with a measly $1.5m fine total after pocketing $6m to $10m for each of the four partners (see Ben Edelman's site [benedelman.org] for the details). They're laughing all the way to the bank. So forget about the risks of prison. Quite the contrary, start a spyware company and rake in millions.