The problems with disclosing even small amounts of personal information are becoming more obvious. Electronic databases make the aggregation of small, otherwise innocuous pieces of personal information inevitable, and they can combine to form remarkably complete pictures of you that include your name, address and even detailed spending habits. Combine this with powerful search engines like Google and even your credit card number can quickly be looked-up, which is discomforting at the least.

More can be found here [Yahoo News]

H.R. 2929, the Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act, is a bill that was introduced in 2003 by Rep. Mary Bono, a republican from California. It has been approved for a full vote on the house floor.

According to this article from ZDNet, “The Spy Act includes 21 pages of dense regulations that specify what software can and can’t do and under what circumstances it must seek explicit permission from the user to proceed.”

As noted in this PC World article, this is not the only piece of legislation being considered regarding the fight against spyware. Utah has already passed some legislation to combat the technology, as discussed here.