Recommendation for Law Proposal:
Limiting Adware and Spyware James S. Dunmire
Management 520
Professor Michael Carr
June 11, 2015

The Law that I am Proposing
The law that I would propose for e-commerce is to severely restrict unsolicited adware. Adware that is often bundled on an e-commerce site gets downloaded on the consumer’s computer without their knowledge or consent.
“Internet companies, whose apparent "business model" is the exploitation of consumer trust and ignorance, are sneaking their spyware systems into our machines for their own purposes”(GRC, n.d). This is not only extremely annoying to the user; it can compromise the user’s security and corrupt the software. This Adware can also contain or be classified as spyware, a type of malware that is considered by many to be privacy-invasive. Spyware can steal a user’s information or corrupt the user’s system files (pc tools, n..d.). Spyware is also difficult to remove once it has been downloaded onto the PC.
Many users inadvertently download spyware or adware when downloading other programs. Many popular peer to peer applications and other software packages include adware or spyware packages. Even seemingly innocuous programs such as special cursors can contain spyware. In addition, many websites and advertising banners set cookies on the user’s system that track their web usage without their knowledge or consent (Secure Perdue, n.d.).
Spyware is not an illegal type of software in any way. However there are certain issues that a privacy oriented user may object to and therefore prefer not to use the product. This usually involves the tracking and sending of data and statistics via a server installed on the user's PC and the use of your Internet connection in the background. (The Trouble with Spyware & Advertising-Supported Software. n.d.)
The issue that I found in my online research is that spyware is perfectly legal, and is also a way for the advertiser to profit without selling anything to the consumer. This allows the advertiser to post banner and popup ads on the user’s PC without charging the user.
Consequences that could affect Businesses The consequences for this regulation on business that they would lose the revenue from Third Party advertisers, and that would result in the increased cost of the businesses to maintain the website. They might pass this increased cost on to consumers.
Consequences that could affect Consumers
The consequences for consumers would be that their PCs would not become infected with unwanted software. As a result they might pay higher prices for products and services, as the businesses may charge more to offset the revenue lost from the banner and popup ads.
Unintended Consequences
Consumers have been socialized to expect the Internet for free, except for the connection costs associated with their ISP, the assurance of content and functionality online are “free.” Free downloads cost money to develop. Spyware providers pay legitimate developers a good deal of money to bundle their spyware applications with sought-after downloadable applications and this economic symbiosis serves as the economic bases of survival for “free” application developers (Stafford, p.i-ii). So the unintended consequence is that many “free” downloadable applications that consumers have taken for granted, will no longer be free. References:
Gibson Research Corporation. Retrieved from GRC.com
IT Pro Portal. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.itproportal.com/2007/05/22/unintended-consequences-continued-does-the-adware-business-support-the-spy-act/
PC Tools. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.pctools.com/security-news/what-is-adware-and-spyware/
Secure Perdue. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/bestPractices/spyware.cfm
Spychecker. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.spychecker.com/spyware.html
Stafford, Tom. (2004). Consumer Apathy and the Emerging Revenue Model of the Internet: The Economic Case for Spyware.
The Trouble with Spyware & Advertising-Supported Software. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://cexx.org/problem.htm