According to Clearswift, a spam filtering company, 'Love Spy' is being promoted by bulk unsolicited e-mail. Purchasers can send their target – a colleague, lover or child – what looks like a harmless electronic greeting card. But when it's opened, software is added to their computer that begins to record e-mail messages, chat room conversations, passwords and any other computer activity.
The software will monitor up to five computers at one time and costs $89 at gokgle.us. According to Clearswift, the site is based in Moscow, despite the US domain. According to the site (which, incidentally, fails to use a secure connection when taking credit card payments):
"LoverSpy opens a 'Remote Connection' from their computer to yours, letting you SEE what THEY are seeing on their computer remotely in real-time, TURN ON their webcam and see them remotely in real-time video, and even get complete access to the files in their computer."
On the legal implications, Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, put it succinctly when he told Reuters, "Yikes! That is clearly a wiretapping violation". In the UK, its use would be an offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of 2000, better known as RIPA.
Hoofnagle went on to explain that not only could the company behind Lover Spy be prosecuted in the US for selling such software, but the purchaser could also be committing an offence under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a fine.
