Spyware bill should focus on behavior, not technology, experts say
Friday, June 13. 2008
Effective anti-spyware legislation must focus on unfair and deceptive behavior and not on specific technology and tricks, according to a panel of experts who spoke on Wednesday as a Senate committee considered an anti-spyware bill.
Narrowly defining spyware or illegal activities would be self-defeating, allowing online criminals to avoid liability by adopting new technologies and techniques, said Benjamin Edelman, assistant professor of business administration and spyware researcher at Harvard University.
“At our peril do we make a list of practices that ought to be prohibited,” Edelman added.
The broad language of unfair and deceptive practices in the Federal Trade Commission Act that FTC now uses to prosecute spyware cases already is adequate, he said. “Avoid attempting to define spyware, because we have enough of that in the FTC Act. That is an approach that has served us well for decades and will serve us well going forward.”
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