I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2929

To protect users of the Internet from unknowing transmission of their personally identifiable information through spyware programs, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 25, 2003

Mrs. BONO (for herself and Mr. TOWNS) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL

To protect users of the Internet from unknowing transmission of their personally identifiable information 

through spyware programs, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safeguard Against Pri5 vacy Invasions Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FTC AUTHORITY TO REGULATE TRANSMISSION OF 

7 SPYWARE PROGRAMS. 

8 (a) PROHIBITION OF TRANSMISSION WITHOUT CON9 SENT.—The Federal Trade Commission shall, by regula-
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1 tion, prohibit the transmission of a spyware program to 

2 a covered computer by means of the Internet, unless the 

3 user of the covered computer expressly consents to such 

4 transmission in response to a clear and conspicuous re5 quest for such consent or through an affirmative request 

6 for such transmission. 

7 (b) TRANSMISSION PURSUANT TO LICENSE AGREE8 MENTS.—The Federal Trade Commission shall, by regula9 tion, establish requirements for the transmission of a 

10 spyware program to a covered computer, by means of the 

11 Internet, in any case in which the transmission of the 

12 spyware program, or any information, program, or com13 munication together or in connection with which the 

14 spyware program is transmitted, requires any affirmative 

15 action on the part of the user of the covered computer 

16 to agree to a license, contract, or other agreement which 

17 is made available on the World Wide Web, as follows: 

18 (1) LOCATION OF LICENSE AGREEMENT.—The 

19 terms of such license, contract, or agreement shall 

20 be set forth on a World Wide Web page and the 

21 mechanism by which the user of the covered com22 puter agrees to such license, contract, or agreement 

23 shall be included on the same page. 

24 (2) NOTICE.—The terms of the license, con25 tract, or other agreement shall—
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1 (A) include provisions, that are clearly 

2 stated and prominently displayed, which specify 

3 that agreement to such license, contract, or 

4 other agreement constitutes consent to trans5 mission of the spyware for purposes of sub6 section (a); and 

7 (B) clearly explain the purpose of including 

8 the spyware. 

9 (3) IDENTIFICATION.—The name of the person 

10 or entity transmitting the spyware, a valid physical 

11 street address of such person or entity, and a func12 tioning return electronic mail address for such per13 son or entity shall be included on the World Wide 

14 Web page referred to in paragraph (1). 

15 (c) NOTICE OF COLLECTION OF PERSONALLY IDEN16 TIFIABLE INFORMATION.—The Federal Trade Commis17 sion shall, by regulation, prohibit the use of any spyware 

18 program that is transmitted to a covered computer by 

19 means of the Internet for collecting any personally identi20 fiable information from the covered computer, unless no21 tice that the program will be used for such collection is 

22 provided—

23 (1) in any license, contract, or other agreement 

24 covering the spyware program or the information, 

25 program, or communication together with which, or 
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1 in connection with which, the spyware program is 

2 transmitted; and 

3 (2) in another prominent location, as the Com4 mission shall provide. 

5 SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT. 

6 (a) ENFORCEMENT THROUGH FTC ACT.—

7 (1) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACT OR PRAC8 TICE.—A violation of any provision of this Act or 

9 any regulation issued under this Act is an unfair or 

10 deceptive act or practice unlawful under section 

11 5(a)(1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 

12 U.S.C. 45(a)(1)). 

13 (2) GUIDELINES AND OPINIONS.—In order to 

14 assist in compliance with this Act, the Federal 

15 Trade Commission may issue generally applicable 

16 guidelines and, upon request, advisory opinions with 

17 respect to specific types of acts or practices that 

18 would, or would not, comply with this Act. 

19 (b) CRIMINAL PENALTIES.—Whoever—

20 (1) violates section 2(c) or the regulations 

21 issued under such section, or 

22 (2) knowingly violates any other provision of 

23 this Act or any regulation issued under this Act, 

24 shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or im25 prisoned for not more than 1 year, or both. 
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1 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

2 For purposes of this Act: 

3 (1) COMPUTER; COVERED COMPUTER.—The 

4 terms ‘‘computer’’ and ‘‘covered computer’’ have the 

5 meanings given such terms in section 1030(e) of 

6 title 18, United States Code. 

7 (2) INTERNET.—The term ‘‘Internet’’ means 

8 collectively the myriad of computer and tele9 communications facilities, including equipment and 

10 operating software, which comprise the inter11 connected world-wide network of networks that em12 ploy the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet 

13 Protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocols 

14 to such protocol, to communicate information of all 

15 kinds by wire or radio. 

16 (3) SPYWARE PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘spyware 

17 program’’ means any computer program or software 

18 that can be used to transmit from a computer, or 

19 that has the capability of so transmitting, by means 

20 of the Internet and without any action on the part 

21 of the user of the computer to initiate such trans22 mission, information regarding the user of the com23 puter, regarding the use of the computer, or that is 

24 stored on the computer. In issuing regulations to 

25 carry out this paragraph, the Commission shall dis26 tinguish spyware programs from other commonly 
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1 used computer programs used to share information 

2 among computers in an organized network of com3 puters. 

4 (4) PAGE.—The term ‘‘page’’ means, with re5 spect to the World Wide Web, a location that has a 

6 single Uniform Resource Locator or other single lo7 cation with respect to the Internet, as the Commis8 sion may prescribe. 

9 (5) PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMA10 TION.—The term ‘‘personally identifiable informa11 tion’’ does not include any record of aggregate data 

12 that does not identify particular persons, particular 

13 computers, particular users of computers, or par14 ticular email addresses or other locations of com15 puters with respect to the Internet. 

16 SEC. 5. REGULATIONS. 

17 The Commission shall issue regulations necessary to 

18 carry out this Act not later than 90 days after the date 

19 of the enactment of this Act.

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