Well this case has taken a while but the FTC won in the end and reached a settlement two years after halting the company from selling it’s “100 per cent undetectable” commercial keylogging application.

It’s interesting to see court cases that venture into the grey area of ethics, I think the main problem stemmed from the information CyberSpy provided along with it’s software. They gave instructions on how to covertly send the application via e-mail and disguise it as an image attachment or an innocuous piece of software.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with Florida spyware vendor CyberSpy Software, two years after suing the company for selling “100 percent undetectable” keylogging software.

Under the terms of the settlement, announced Wednesday, CyberSpy can keep selling its RemoteSpy spyware but must take new steps to prevent it from being misused or advertised as a tool for spying on someone else’s computer.

To prevent its program from being used illegally, CyberSpy must make changes to it to prevent surreptitious installation, and “encrypt data transmitted over the Internet, police their affiliates to ensure they comply with the order, and remove legacy versions of the software from computers,” the FTC said in a statement.

The FTC sued CyberSpy in November 2008 in an effort to get it to change its business practices.

The final verdict is CyberSpy can continue selling it’s software as that itself is illegal, but they must take precautions to prevent it from being misused or abused and they can no longer advertise it as a tool for spying on others.

This is why ethical cases are a little odd, they can continue selling the exact same software with the same functions – they just have to market it differently and not give people instructions which enable them to spy on others.

Not like people can’t find the same info elsewhere.

CyberSpy used to advertise its product as a tool that let users “secretly and covertly monitor and record PC’s without the need of physical access.”

Today, it’s billed as a tool that lets users spy on their own PCs — in order to keep tabs on children or employees.

The company previously had provided detailed instructions on how to attach a RemoteSpy executable file to an e-mail message, disguised as a photo or legitimate file attachment, the FTC said.

Today, CyberSpy simply advises users to do a Google search on compressing executable attachments, if they want to send RemoteSpy to their own computer and keep it from being blocked by e-mail filters.

CyberSpy have shifted their marketing slightly and now promote the tool as something to spy on your own computers (on your kids/employees etc.) – which is still highly questionable, but not illegal.

They also now include a disclaimer on the RemoteSpy page which states:

Notice: Installing computer monitoring tools on computers you do not own or do not have permission to monitor may violate local, state or federal law.

Source: Network World

Companies could find themselves put up for public humiliation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission if they continue to advertise through insidious ad-serving software.

Such a move might help in the battle against adware, FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz said Thursday at an event here hosted by the Anti-Spyware Coalition. Adware is software that displays pop-up ads on PCs, often after Internet searches.

Anti-spyware software is a requirement just like Anti-virus software. Common vulnerabilities in browsers make it very easy for malicious software to infect your machine through Internet Explorer for example.

“I think that could have a beneficial effect,” Leibowitz said in an interview. “In this context, maybe shaming a company on how they are spending money might inure to the benefit of consumer’s privacy.”

Viruses, spyware, trojans and adware are big problems now with solutions for all of them (firewalls and intrusion detection help massively of course).

The FTC would publicly announce and publish the name of a company that advertises using adware that installs itself surreptitiously on consumer PCs or using spyware, Leibowitz said. He would recommend publicly shaming advertisers to the other FTC commissioners if the adware problem doesn’t decrease, he said.

Source: News.com