The Pitfalls of Cyberspace
Tech Law
August / September 2008
Volume 6 Number 4
The bad news is that you can easily find trouble online. The good news is that a healthy dose of common sense and education can minimize your risks.
Let's start with don't let yourself be victimized by fraud. It's easy to say, but fraud is hard to detect.
One of the best examples I've ever seen involved BestBuy.com. This is from an email I received:
"Dear customer: Recently we have received an order made by using your personal credit card information—€¦Our Fraud Department has some suspicions regarding this order and we need you to visit a special Fraud Department page at our web store where you can confirm or decline this transaction by providing us with the correct information—€¦Click the link below to visit a special Fraud Department page to resolve the cause of the problem."
When I received this one, it had me scratching my head. While it didn't pass the smell test, it looked so real. It used the BestBuy.com logo and gave me a chance to "decline this transaction."
The big hint was that the "link below" did not take me to BestBuy.com, but rather it went to "digitalgamma.com." Once there, it asked for my credit card information and other stuff that could only help some criminal steal my identity. Oh how quickly the smell test went putrid. Still, I can only imagine how many people this scam has duped.
Just remember that neither your bank nor anybody legitimate is ever going to send you an email out of the blue asking you for private information. If in doubt, call the supposed sender of the email.
Now let's flip from you being a victim to you being a bad guy, even if it's unintentional.
While I think that this next point should be obvious to everyone, experience tells me that it is not. It's actually quite simple. The same law that applies where you sit is the same law that applies to your online behavior.
I don't know why intelligent people think that cyberspace is a real place with its own law or even no law. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
If you libel someone on a web site, she can sue you just as she could if you did it in a book. If you download illegal child pornography, you can go to jail just as you could if you bought a magazine. If you gamble online, you might as well be in an illegal casino. If you click "I accept" to an online agreement, you should assume that you've entered into a contract.
One novel idea that I have is that you might consider actually reading the agreement before you "accept" it. When they come to collect your first born like you agreed to in the contract you "accepted," you'll have nobody but yourself to blame since you didn't read what you "signed."
Let me summarize online common sense by just suggesting that you treat the online world like a major intersection in a big city. Anything can come your way, but if you're careful, you'll be just fine.
Just the word—€”"spyware"—€” sounds evil. Well, it is and the problem is that it's not clearly illegal. It's time that it was. Did you know that with spyware somebody could be logging all your keystrokes and having that information sent to them over the internet? They could also be looking at your private financial information, your confidential memo or other private information. Ever had an advertisement popup over another ad? That could be spyware, too.
"Spyware" is a great example of the proposition that the internet is so new that we have yet to pass all the fundamental laws that should govern it. To me, surreptitiously installing spyware on my computer is not much different than spying on me using more traditional means. It seems to me that it should be a crime to bug my house with a listening device or to bug it with software. Right now, only the listening device is clearly illegal and that's absurd.
Spyware is a rampant problem. If you have never checked your computer with one of the anti-spyware utilities, it's likely that you have spyware lurking on your system. (My favorite utility is "Ad-Aware." It's free and you can find it at www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html.)
Disclaimer: The advice given in the TechLaw column should not be considered legal advice. This column only provides general educational information.
Mark Grossman is an attorney practicing in New York and Florida. Email: MGrossman@eComputerLaw.com
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