STEARNS' REWRITE OF SPY ACT APPROVED BY THE FULL HOUSE IN 2005

Washington, Jun 6, 2007 - "Through a series of hearings I had held as Chairman of the Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee, we learned about spyware, a program that is secretly loaded onto a victim's computer that works to defraud not only them, but also to corrupt the Internet as a safe and secure space for commerce," stated Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL). "This led to the introduction of the Spy Act, which would stop these deceptive and prohibited practices such as keystroke logging, web page hijacking, and unsolicited ads that cannot be deleted." Stearns rewrite of the Spy Act eventually passed in the full House in 2005, but the Senate failed to act. The House today by a vote of 368 to 48 approved the latest version of the Spy Act, H.R. 964. "This measure prohibits all of the most commonly known unfair or deceptive practices relating to spyware," explained Stearns. It prohibits the collection of personal information from a computer without the notice and consent. In addition, the program must allow the user to easily remove or disable the spyware. Added Stearns, "Some in the business community have raised 11th hour concerns about a specific provision that was added at the Full Committee markup. I share some of the concern about this provision, but in the interest of continuing to move this process forward, I will vote 'yea' today. I hope as the bill moves to the Senate and to a subsequent conference committee, we can solve this issue to the satisfaction of all interested parties."