The United States Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced an aggressive new strategy in taking on alleged purveyors of "spyware," a vague term that describes software that may track unsuspecting Web surfers and bombard them with advertisements or even steal log-in information and passwords.
In the first action of its kind, the agency last week filed a civil lawsuit against Wallace, charging the admitted former junk e-mailer with fraudulently installing advertising and other software on consumers' computers through his network of Web sites. The lawsuit was the centrepiece of Tuesday's FTC announcement.
"Spyware spoils the online experience for millions of computer users, and even worse could be an obstacle to the growth of e-commerce," said Lydia Parnes, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "This may be our first case (against spyware), but it won't be our last."
As in the early spam battles, the bombastic Wallace has become a lighting rod for efforts to clamp down on what many now consider to be among the most virulent Net pests. In an interview Tuesday, Wallace said his company had never created spyware, and that the pop-ups and downloads on his Web sites could be turned off by using the most up-to-date security patches for Web browsers.
"We don't think that we're involved in anything illegal," Wallace said. "There is nothing we're involved with that cannot be avoided by a consumer choosing to turn off downloads on their computers or by blocking pop-ups."
Tuesday's lawsuits -- particularly in conjunction with federal anti-spyware legislation nearing passage -- could help rein in business practices that have posed increasing risks for Net surfers during the past few years.
"Very much like with spam and the spam legislation last year, spyware can be fought through a combination of efforts: enforcement, legislation, technology and consumer education," said Dave Baker, an attorney at Internet service provider EarthLink, which has been an active participant in anti-spyware efforts. "No one thing cures the problem by itself."
The last year has proved to be a tipping point for an issue that has been building for several years. Reports of widespread adware and spyware infection have increased dramatically, in part as consumers have increasingly realised that their computer crashes and slowdowns were being caused by surreptitious advertising software.
EarthLink recently said its online spyware-spotting tool had been used 3 million times since January and had found an average of 26 spyware components on people's hard drives.
The result has been a surge of legislative efforts in Congress and state legislatures, as well as this week's lawsuits from the FTC.
Legal limits
Wallace -- once dubbed "Spamford" by a Net community desperate to cut off the flow of unsolicited e-mail coming from his company's servers -- has been operating new advertising ventures for several years. Regardless of the suit's outcome, the charges brought against Wallace's companies -- Seismic Entertainment Productions and SmartBot -- could help raise awareness of the issue.
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