Posted on 03/10/2005 10:26:05 AM PST by rit
To: Congresswoman Mary Bono, Congressman Joe Barton, Congressman Cliff Stearns
Subject: H.R.29, SPY ACT (Introduced in House)
As a professional in the industry, I find section 5.B.1 to be insufficient. According to the current draft, exemption is provided as long as the provider is installing monitoring software for the detection of fraudulent activities.
There is no definition for the phrase "fraudulent activities," nor for the "detection" of "fraudulent activities". As such, any software provider (even outside of US Law Enforcement) can install monitoring software to collect information under the premise that it was for detecting fraudulent activities, and they would be exempt from this Act.
In general, section 5.B.1, allows monitoring by any software provider under an ill-defined "detection of fraudulent activities", without requirements that
1. The provider (either software provider, internet service provider) can only collect such information on behalf of a US law enforcement initiated action,
2. The provider (either software provider, internet service provider) must provide all collected information to a US law enforcement agency, and
3. The provider (either software provider, internet service provider) will otherwise erase collected information after a 60 day period.
In section 5.B.2, there is no definition for "discrete interaction" and this leaves door wide open for monitoring. If the spyware is installed and collects personal information, this information could be sent as a discrete interaction with a protected computer by a provider of computer software solely to determine whether the user of the computer is authorized to use such software, that occurs upon initialization. For example, a spyware program is installed and collects personal information. On a subsequent reboot of the computer, the spyware program (on initialization) sends the personal information to the protected computer and receives a response to indicate if the program should continue to execute, or terminate.
In section 5.C, a spyware provider can install spyware and collect personal data, and then (as a Good Samaritan) provide a spyware removal program to remove the installed spyware. Accordingly, section 5.C provides exemption.
In section 5.D, there is no reason that a manufacturer installing 3rd party software cannot obtain a written statement that the software is not in violation of this Act, and provide same to the consumer. Otherwise, the manufacturer could purposefully install spyware from a 3rd party, and the manufacturer would be exempt from this Act.
Sincerely,
rit
Don't do anything illegal, transmit sensitive info, or send/access something your wouldn't want your mother to see and you have no worry.
The occasional invasion occurs, but I feel in the scope of things, overall the government is pretty good about staying away from witch hunts. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Just trying to point out some flaws in the current draft. Hopefully, they will take notice and make ammendments.
Dad, you are messed up in the head. We are lost with attitudes like that.
If you want security use the mail, hand deliver it, the phone, or just basically keep stuff in your house. Don't you get tired of volumes of law being rendered useless ( and the man hours that wet into drafting it ) because someone might get their privacy invaded.
In the "digital age" anything you put out there is public dude. Get used to it.
calling the general
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:1:./temp/~c109B5Ab8D:e1065:
Indeed....
I was there were you?
Yeah, the book has the ones they did pursue where are the volumes that they didn't? Considering the population of the US, average Joe can be safe that he will more than likely not be targeted unless he is a criminal or maybe pisses off the wrong guy.
Stay clean and don't worry the law of averages is on your side. I speak from the viewpoint of a narcotic officer who participated in several lawful wire intercepts and knows first hand there are not enough hours in the day for us ( all law agencies combined )to chase everyone we can build a case on much less John Public who had some small item that flew into our net.
When some you know/love ( child ) shows up on a porn site and you get pissed don't cry sour grapes because they perv can't be caught and tried.
I am a software engineer I am familiar with it.
When you have had full access to the files that were made on these criminal prior to the fire let me know. Arm chair QB's. LEO's are damned when we do damned when we don't. One reason I quit, the ingrateful, uninformed public. I worked with those agents that got killed. They were lawfully executing a search warrant and got killed by criminals. What's the difference in an a-hole that shoots a street officer during a robbery attempt. Uhh... none.
I don't have access to ATF or FBI personnel dossiers.
Tlaw is a 4th Amendment violation waiting to happen.
What Happened to Probable Cause? I know that is only for drug dealers and illegal aliens.
You Must be a COP.
Was. Got tired of being underappreciated, underpaid, overworked, and legally handcuffed and not being able to perform my job. Got tired of PEOPLE complaining about us not being there when they wanted/needed us, but seeing too much of us any other time.
I said in another thread if police organized a week long walk-out most attitudes would change if only until the next wake up call.
My concerns center on section 5.B and 5.C, which provide exemption for all providers (software and ISPs), to install and track information under the premise of "for the detection or prevention of fraudulent activities." Remember, this is non-LEO as LEOs are already covered by 5.A. Unfortunately, the Act does not define what this means, or how the data is to be collected, or how the data can be used. It only states that this is exempt.
Leaving that to interpretation will make it ripe for abuse by non LEOs, and hence I question the merit of the wording.
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