MICROSOFT WRITES SPYWARE BILL Friday, April 21, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com Microsoft has written and is currently campaigning for spyware legislation that may end up giving software companies access to consumers’ computers, according to the Oklahoma Gazette. The bill, known as the Computer Spyware Protection Act, would impose heavy fines on any person or company that is caught accessing a computer without obtaining permission from the owner. However, once a computer user authorizes software updates and accepts a user’s agreement, the software will be allowed to do anything in order to detect or prevent illegal or fraudulent activity. In other words, Microsoft will be allowed to install and run software that searches for pirated copies of Excel, Word, or any other pirated software and remove those programs if it could be considered fraudulent or illegal. Technically, software companies could go as far as tracking user behavior or scan through a computer’s hard drive to search for any type of illegal activity. For example if Microsoft scanned through a computer’s browser history and found out that someone plays poker online, they could notify authorities. Proponents of the bill claim that it will protect computer users from spyware and hackers. However, privacy experts are criticizing the bill because they argue that it will give software companies the legal authority to take control over people’s computers. Hmmm, what do you think ?