Prohibitions, Use of Software

It is unlawful for a person who is not an owner or operator of a computer to cause computer software to be copied on such computer knowingly or with conscious avoidance of actual knowledge or willfully, and to use such software to do any of the following:

(a)modify, through intentionally deceptive means, settings of a computer that control any of the following: COL 3/18/2024 CH. 46 FORGERY, FRAUDULENT PRACTICES AND TELEPHONE RECORDS

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

(2)the default provider or web proxy that an owner or operator uses to access or search the internet; or

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

(b)collect, through intentionally deceptive means, personally identifiable information through any of the following means:

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

(2)in a manner that correlates personally identifiable information with data regarding all or substantially all of the websites visited by an owner or operator, other than websites operated by the person providing such software, if the computer software was installed in a manner designed to conceal from all authorized users of the computer the fact that the software is being installed;

(3)by extracting from the hard drive of an owner’s or an operator’s computer, an owner’s or an operator’s social security number, tax identification number, driver’s license number, passport number, any other government-issued identification number, account balances, or overdraft history for a purpose unrelated to any of the purposes of the software or service described to an authorized user;

(c)prevent, through intentionally deceptive means, an owner’s or an operator’s reasonable efforts to block the installation of or execution of, or to disable, computer software by causing computer software that the owner or operator has properly removed or disabled to automatically reinstall or reactivate on the computer without the authorization of an authorized user;

(d)intentionally misrepresent that computer software will be uninstalled or disabled by an owner’s or an operator’s action;

(e)through intentionally deceptive means, remove, disable, or render inoperative security, antispyware, or antivirus computer software installed on an owner’s or an operator’s computer;

(f)enable use of an owner’s or an operator’s computer to do any of the following:

(1)accessing or using a modem or internet service for the purpose of causing damage to an owner’s or an operator’s computer, or causing an owner or operator, or a third party affected by such conduct to incur financial charges for a service that the owner or operator did not authorize;

(2)opening multiple, sequential, stand-alone messages in an owner’s or an operator’s computer without the authorization of an owner or operator, and with knowledge that a reasonable computer user could not close the messages without turning off the computer or closing the software application in which the messages appear; provided, that this Subsection shall not apply to communications originated by the computer’s operating system, originated by a software application that the user chooses to activate, originated by a service provider that the user chooses to use, or presented for any of the purposes described in §46.606;

(3)transmitting or relaying commercial electronic mail or a computer virus from the computer, where the transmission or relaying is initiated by a person other than the authorized user and without the authorization of an authorized user;

(g)modify any of the following settings related the computer’s access to, or use of, the internet: COL 3/18/2024 CH. 46 FORGERY, FRAUDULENT PRACTICES AND TELEPHONE RECORDS

(1)settings that protect information about an owner or operator for the purpose of taking personally identifiable information of the owner or operator;

(2)security settings for the purpose of causing damage to a computer; or

(3)settings that protect the computer from the uses identified in Subsection

(f)of this Section.

(h)prevent, without the authorization of an owner or operator, an owner’s or an operator’s reasonable efforts to block the installation of, or to disable, computer software by doing any of the following:

(1)presenting the owner or operator with an option to decline installation of computer software with knowledge that, when the option is selected by the authorized user, the installation nevertheless proceeds;

(2)falsely representing that computer software has been disabled;

(3)requiring in an intentionally deceptive manner the user to access the internet to remove the software with knowledge or reckless disregard of the fact that the software frequently operates in a manner that prevents the user from accessing the internet;

(4)changing the name, location or other designation information of the software for the purpose of preventing an authorized user from locating the software to remove it;

(5)using randomized or intentionally deceptive filenames, directory folders, formats, or registry entries for the purpose of avoiding detection and removal of the software by an authorized user;

(6)causing the installation of software in a particular computer directory or computer memory for the purpose of evading authorized users’ attempts to remove the software from the computer; or

(7)requiring, without the authority of the owner of the computer, that an authorized user obtain a special code or download software from a third party to uninstall the software.