After moving to curb spam with new legislation last year, federal regulators are poised to take on the newest scourge of the Internet: spyware.

The Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop Monday to study technical and regulatory responses to spyware — programs surreptitiously buried in your computer that monitor your activities. A similar FTC workshop on junk e-mail last year led to an agency recommendation to pass an anti-spam bill. Congress responded.

But with spyware seen as a less clear menace, FTC officials are hesitant to crack down on it. And Capitol Hill staffers say new spyware bills are unlikely to pass this year.

By Paul Davidson at USA Today.

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