Nothing to hide here but I would still be a bit peeved if the feds dropped anything on my pc.
A recent federal court decision raises the question of whether antivirus companies may intentionally overlook spyware that is secretly placed on computers by police.
In the case decided earlier this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, federal agents used spyware with a keystroke logger--call it fedware--to record the typing of a suspected Ecstasy manufacturer who used encryption to thwart the police.
A CNET News.com survey of 13 leading antispyware vendors found that not one company acknowledged cooperating unofficially with government agencies. Some, however, indicated that they would not alert customers to the presence of fedware if they were ordered by a court to remain quiet.
If they are just using this to go after specific people then I dont care but if they start randomly installing this on everyones computer just to see what they can find then I will care.
I remember hearing this on the news a year or so back. The program in question compared files names on "your" PC to those already known about in pedophile busts.
I would imagine the selection of PC's that were bugged were very selectively targeted - you would have to be a prime suspect for this to happen, mainly because of time and resources.
However those caught by the system more than likely deserve all they got.
IF they keep to specific targets its fine, oherwise keep an eye out for "anti-fedware"
As much as the FBI et al can write sophisticated software (just look at minesweeper ), I would have thought that somehow the principal of key-loggers etc. would still be the same & spyware / AV software should detect 'some' activity ? I may be wrong, but anyway I do agree (in principal) - but only as long it is targeted to specific 'suspects' (just like phone-tapping) then Joe-Public has nothing to worry about - but if it starts getting slipped into a 'Windows Update' (for example) then ....??? (your next tax raise could be just paying for it ...!!)