House Bill Punishes Spyware Makers

The new bill gives harder jail time and adds multimillion-dollar fines to the list of punishments given to spyware makers that steal consumer information.

“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.

The bills prohibit a number of practices often associated with spyware, such as reprogramming the start page on a user’s Web browser, logging keystrokes to capture passwords and other sensitive data, or launching pop-up ads that can’t be closed without shutting down the computer. ”

Read more at CNN.com