For Release:
February 18, 2004
FTC To Host Spyware
Workshop
The Federal Trade Commission will host
a public workshop, “Monitoring Software on Your PC:
Spyware, Adware, and Other Software,” on April 19, 2004,
from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. The workshop will explore issues
associated with the distribution and effects of software that
is loaded on personal computers without users’ consent
and that gathers and sends information about users to third
parties or that adversely affects the
computers’ functioning. A Federal Register Notice describing
the workshop in more detail will be published shortly. The
workshop, which will be held at the FTC’s Conference
Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., will
be open to the public.
The workshop generally will focus on four
areas:
- Defining and Understanding Spyware,
including a discussion of how spyware may differ from adware;
- Distribution of Spyware, including the
role that peer-to-peer file-sharing may
play;
- The Effects of Spyware, including the
extent to which spyware affects the functioning of personal
computers and raises privacy or security concerns; and
- Possible Responses to Spyware Concerns, including a discussion
of what consumers, government, and industry have been doing
and intend to do, by themselves or together, to address
the harms associated with spyware.
Interested parties can submit written comments,
including studies, surveys, research, and empirical data to
Federal Trade Commission - Office of the Secretary, Room 159-H,
600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Comments
and envelopes should be marked “Spyware Workshop - Comment,
P044509". Interested parties also are encouraged to submit
written comments to the following e-mail box: spywareworkshop2004@ftc.gov.
Persons seeking to participate as panelists in the workshop
must notify the FTC in writing of their interest in participating
and describe their expertise in or knowledge of the issues.
Panelists will be selected based on whether they have expertise
or knowledge; whether their participation would promote a
balance of interests being represented at the workshop; and
whether they represent a group that shares a viewpoint.
A detailed agenda and additional information on the workshop
will be posted on the FTC’s Web site at www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/spyware/index.htm.
Copies
of the Federal Register notice are available from the FTC’s
Web site at http://www.ftc.gov
and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room
130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive,
and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide
information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them.
To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of
150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1 877-382-4357),
or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov.
The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and
other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure,
online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal
law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Claudia Bourne Farrell,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2181
STAFF CONTACT:
Elizabeth Delaney,
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2903
(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/02/spyware.htm)
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Related Documents:
Project P044509: Public Workshop:
Monitoring Software on Your PC: Spyware, Adware, and Other
Software
- Text of the Federal Register Notice
[PDF24 KB]
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