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History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S244
Title of bill
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to establishing the crime of unlawful use of spyware and malware
Purpose
The act aims to protect the privacy of computer users by banning the dissemination of computer spyware and malware without the authorization of the owner of a computer.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 adds section 156.40 to the Penal Law to ban the use of computer spyware and malware, where spyware and malware are a computer program when downloaded and functioning, transmits information to a third party without the authorization of a computer user. Section 2 establishes an effective date of the first of November next succeeding date on which it shall have become a law.
Justification
Computer users download information from the internet without truly understanding what functions the programs will have. Many times computer users will encounter the opportunity to download a computer program from the internet that they believe will give them an innocuous program that will help them organize their lives. However, it sometimes is not known to the computer user what other functions the computer program will actually have and these seemingly harmless programs may also send information to a third party such as a marketing firm, or worse a person who wishes to commit identity theft. Key-logging computer programs record all of the keystrokes that a computer user makes while using a computer. Because many use computers for banking and credit card transactions, these programs allow for criminals to commit identity theft. Therefore, this legislation includes (but is not limited to) key-logging within the spyware ban.
Prior legislative history
S.4948 of 2007 04/24/07 Referred to Codes S.1670 of 2011 01/11/11 Referred to Codes 01/04/12 Referred to Codes
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.