The SPY BLOCK (it’s a clever acronym: Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge) Act was introduced in February in the U.S. Senate, and it’s worked it’s way through commitee … basically, it establishes a few requirements for software applications that are great! Let me sum them up for you, and then … rush off and write your senator to encourage them to pass this bill as-is!
Section 2
- Nobody is allowed to install software on a computer without permission from the user of that computer (note: user, not owner, so this presumably extends to companies installing spy tools).
- Nobody is allowed to install software that doesn’t have an uninstall feature, or that misleads the user about the provider of services or information.
Section 3
- Software installers must request permission to install, and include a separate disclosure, for each “information collection, advertising, distributed computing, and settings modification feature” contained in the computer software.
- These notifications are required to remain displayed on the screen until the user either grants or denies permission. Yes, that means the user has to grant permission for each and every advertising “feature.” There’s also a list of required information for each of these types of “features” that must be met. For example: “in the case of a settings modification feature,” it’s required to provide a clear description of the change, what it’s for, and any side effects it might have.
- Software must have a removal tool that appears in the “Add/Remove Programs” control panel, or any similar feature provided by other (non-Windows) operating systems, and that tool must be able to completely remove it.
- Any program that has advertising must include link with each ad that leads to information about how to disable advertising or uninstall the software. (hurray!)
Anyway, there’s a lot more details on the library of congress: website, but the bottom line is, it looks like a good law, and I want action on this as soon as possible [ ] so “contact your senator”:http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm