Spyware presents a threat of privacy infringement to unassuming internet users irrespective of their country of citizenship. European legislation attempts to protect end-users from unethical processing of their personal data. Spyware technologies, however, skirts these laws and often break them in their entirety. Outlawing the spyware and strengthening the legal consent requirement to mine data are statutory solutions that can prevent spyware users from skirting the law. An internationally standardized technology education system for the judiciaries in Europe and the U.S. can help ensure that when spyware users do break the law, they cannot hide by escaping from one nation to another without being held accountable. Transnational improvements are necessary to remedy the global spyware epidemic.

With today’s rapid rate of technological advancement, it is imperative that judicial systems around the world evolve their legal systems to address the spyware problem. Digital privacy is not limited to a specific geographical boundary. As societies become more dependent on technology, the need for greater awareness, action and education to help protect average citizens from all misuses of technology can alleviate this dilemma. Although Europe has implemented quite strict data processing protection laws, far beyond those within the U.S, little has been achieved to protect European Internet users from spyware. Left largely unchecked by legal remedies, spyware has infiltrated and overrun personal computers worldwide. This paper elucidates the threat of spyware in the light of its technical capabilities, analyzes how spyware violates existing European law, and provides solutions, statutory and non-statutory.

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