A county sheriff from Limestone, Alabama is sticking by his department's endorsement of ComputerCOP, a shady piece of software given to parents to monitor their kids online. Other law enforcement agencies, it appears, have followed that example.
Earlier this week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an investigation into software called ComputerCOP which approximately 245 agencies in more than 35 states, plus the US Marshals, have been distributing to parents to use to monitor their children. The software is essentially spyware, and many versions come with a keylogger, which in some cases transmits unencrypted keystrokes to a server.
In addition to ComputerCOP's security issues, the EFF discovered misleading marketing materials that wrongly claimed endorsements from the US Department of the Treasury and the ACLU. “Law enforcement agencies have purchased a poor product, slapped their trusted emblems on it, and passed it on to everyday people. It’s time for those law enforcement agencies to take away ComputerCOP’s badge,” Dave Maass of the EFF wrote in an article that was republished on Ars on Wednesday.
Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments