Spyware – Legislation?
Author: D. David Dugan

We have all had to become more aware about what companies are
doing to invade our privacy these days. Identity theft, frauds,
and scams are happening every day and the perpetrators of these
are getting more and more sophisticated.

There are even some major corporations involved in some of this
as if ethics rules for businesses don't apply to what they might
do online. People tend to think that if a company is big and
well known, they must be reputable. They go so far as to think
it's safer to do business with a big company than with one that
is small. These corporations take advantage of that trust.

Many people do not even know the answer to this question; "Who
are the biggest distributors of pornography in this country?"
The common answers are Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, and others
who are well known for that distribution.

For years, General Motors owned Direct TV. Direct TV is the
company that has served up more pornographic movies than any
other single company. I bet they don't discuss that at GM's
shareholder meetings. The number two purveyor of porn for years
has been AT&T. They run the pay-per-view channels that are piped
into even very reputable hotel chains across the country.

My point is that just because you are very familiar with a
company's name does not mean that everything they send you is
to be trusted. RealPlayer is notorious for adding unwanted
software and installing those programs on your computer. In the
fine print of their user-agreement, which they know you do not
read, you give them permission to download what they like to
call third-party software.

There are many companies you know and trust that let software
piggy-back on their software's installation without you knowing
it in most cases. Of course, IF you read the user-agreement and
you were an attorney who could understand the way they write
it, you would have known you were giving permission for this
nefarious activity.

The companies that make the malicious software pay the bigger
more trusted companies to add their programs to their
installations, because they know they could never get you to
agree to download their software directly. And of course then
you would also know it was running in the background on your
computer using up your resources to make them money.

Big software companies also lobby congress to make sure no laws
get passed that might limit the ways they can take advantage of
computer users. And beyond that, the average politician doesn't
know anything about how computers or the Internet actually
works. This helps the software companies keep them in the dark
on the whole issue.

Until legislation is passed that prohibits spyware, malware,
adware, badware, and other data-mining software, the problem is
just going to get bigger. Until we have politicians that
actually pay attention to new technology, we will continue to
have corporations take advantage of their naivete and take
advantage of the average Internet user.

Most of the terms of service written by these company's
attorneys are worthless from a legal standpoint. The items they
put into the fine print will not hold up in a legal challenge.
However, the average user is not going to hire a powerful
attorney and pay the expense of taking their case all the way
to the Supreme Court just because someone harmed their computer
or allowed their identity to be stolen.

These companies know they are safe as long as they keep
congress and users in the dark. They are cockroaches and
cockroaches hate the light. Write to your congressman and tell
him or her that this has to stop. These companies need to be
stopped from the practice of downloading anything they want
from anyone willing to pay them onto your and my computer.

A simple terms of service should be required and you should get
to read it BEFORE downloading or paying for any software. It
should contain an easy to read section called, "Other Items
Installed On Your Computer When You Install This Program."


About The Author: D. David Dugan is the president of DD&C
(http://www.dugancom.com) and personally helps to maintain
their computer support forum at http://forum.dugancom.com as
well as their Spyware Information site
http://spyware.dugancom.com.

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