Stopping Spyware at the Source

[Mercury]

This is excellent news!

During the past few months, the Federal Trade Commission has filed deceptive- advertising cases against two distributors of what is called adware or spyware. The insidious form of software subjects consumers and their computers to unwanted advertising and surveillance.

The five-member commission plans to escalate its attack by going after some of the big-name Internet advertisers that hire the online distributors.

"We need to stop the demand side of spyware," said Jon Leibowitz, one of the five commission members and a Democrat. "We will send letters to major corporations and entities that place the majority of these ads. This is a wake-up call to put them on notice. That would be a good way to choke off the money."


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