House passes spyware bills

[steve2470]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/24/technology/spyware.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

Penalties would be tougher for those using surveillance programs to access credit-card information.
May 24, 2005: 7:26 AM EDT


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House voted Monday to establish new penalties for purveyors of Internet "spyware" that disables users' computers and secretly monitors their activities.

By overwhelming majorities, the House passed two bills that stiffen jail sentences and establish multimillion-dollar fines for those who use secret surveillance programs to steal credit-card numbers, sell software or commit other crimes.

Spyware has emerged as a major headache for computer users over the last several years.

It can sap computing power, crash machines and bury users under a blizzard of unwanted ads. Scam artists use spyware to capture passwords, account numbers and other sensitive data.





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[coloradodem2005]

1. Damn straight they should have passed that.

Those spyware people should be put in jail and made to pay a heavy penalty for what they do to people.

[Deja Q]

3. Like drugs, this won't affect the pros...

I'd rather see congress force companies to keep American jobs at home and give their workers some consideration.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. When I first saw the title of the thread

I thought "oh no what now?" and of course then I read through it. I think it's good to get all these pop-up ads stuff that can cause crashes and put viruses on your computer. My family's computer has had so many problems. Now that we have firefox I haven't had any problems. Of course we have a virus scanner and check it every once in a while just in case.

[-..__...]

4. The Government hates competition.

Of course they'd pass an anti spyware bill.