Although the US didn"t get the no spam list looks like we"ll be getting some better. Thursday U.S. congressional panel endorsed a bill that"s designed to crack down on "spyware". This bill was introduced by Mary Bono and Ed Towns. This bill allows the FTC to seek huge fines (millions of dollars) for things such as keystroke logging or identity theft, and also make it so spyware could be removed easily.
A key U.S. congressional panel on Thursday endorsed a bill designed to crack down on deceptive "spyware" that hides in users" computers and secretly monitors their activities. Lawmakers on a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee voted unanimously for a bill that would require purveyors of spyware on the Internet to notify people before loading new software on their machines. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas and chairman of the full committee, predicted the bill would proceed quickly through the House and "sometime this year become public law."
The bill, introduced by Reps. Mary Bono, a California Republican, and Ed Towns, a New York Democrat, also would allow the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to seek millions of dollars in fines for some of the practices lawmakers consider most egregious, such as logging users" keystrokes or stealing their identities. It also would require that spyware be made easily removable.