It is unlawful for a person who is not an owner or operator to transmit computer software to the owner or operator’s computer with actual knowledge or with conscious avoidance of actual knowledge and to use such software to do any of the following:

(1)  Modify, through intentionally deceptive means, settings that control any of the following:

(a)  The page that appears when an owner or operator launches an internet browser or similar computer software used to access and navigate the internet;

(b)  The default provider or web proxy the owner or operator uses to access or search the internet; and

(c)  The owner or operator’s list of bookmarks used to access web pages;

(2)  Collect, through intentionally deceptive means, personally identifiable information:

(a)  Through the use of a keystroke-logging function that records all keystrokes made by an owner or operator and transfers that information from the computer to another person;

(b)  In a manner that correlates such information with data respecting all or substantially all of the websites visited by an owner or operator, other than websites operated by the person collecting such information; and

(c)  Described in subsection (10)(d), (e), or (f)(i) or (ii) of § 11-52.2-1 by extracting the information from the owner or operator’s hard drive;

(3)  Prevent, through intentionally deceptive means, an owner or operator’s reasonable efforts to block the installation or execution of, or to disable, computer software by causing the software that the owner or operator has properly removed or disabled automatically to reinstall or reactive [reactivate] on the computer;

(4)  Intentionally misrepresent that the computer software will be uninstalled or disabled by an owner or operator’s action; and

(5)  Through intentionally deceptive means, remove, disable, or render inoperative security, antispyware, or antivirus computer software installed on the computer.

History of Section.
P.L. 2006, ch. 583, § 1.