Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Protecting Your Privacy
Inslee and Shays Praise Passage of Spyware Legislation
5 October 2004
[ Inslee’s Spyware Resource Center ]
Today, U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) commended the House of Representatives on passing legislation to combat the problem of spyware. Spyware can impair consumers’ experience, undermine privacy and threaten security when deceptive software is installed on their systems without their knowledge or consent. The legislation, H.R. 2929, passed the House by a vote of 399 to one, and had been requested for floor consideration by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Said Inslee, “Today the House gave American consumers hope in the fight against spyware. We commend the Committees’ commitment to consumer privacy and their members’ diligent efforts to achieve a workable computer privacy benefit that delivers consumer protections while minimizing harm to legitimate technology innovators. We applaud the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s adoption of a “just-in-time” notice and consent benefit and the prohibition of a very comprehensive list of deceptive behaviors. While we would prefer an entirely behavior-based approach for privacy protections, great efforts to narrowly focus the legislative language in this regard have been made.”
Said Shays, “Millions of computers have been infected with spyware, software that is deceptively installed on computers to collect personal information, record keystrokes, change browser homepages, or display unwanted advertising. I am grateful the House is acting to protect people from this nuisance.”
Inslee and Shays previously introduced spyware legislation, the Computer Software Privacy and Control Act (H.R. 4255). Their legislation sought to target deceptive behavior, rather than specific technologies, which could stifle technological development and fail to capture an ever-changing technology. It also provided effective, logistically workable notice and consent consumer protections designed to allow for “just-in-time” consent, a substantial benefit for consumers and innovators. Finally, their joint legislation provided Congressional oversight of the Department of Justice’s use of such technology, and necessary criminal penalties for deceptive spyware behaviors.
“The technology industry remains a vibrant and growing sector of our economy. We believe that there is a tremendous reservoir of innovation among many responsible technology innovators who are capable and willing to undertake consumer education programs and develop effective technology solutions to the spyware problem, which would complement legislative action from Congress,” added Inslee.