Spyware beware in Utah.

• Position: Trends And Transitions

With a law enacted this spring, Utah became the first state to prohibit "spyware," software installed on a computer without the owner's consent. The law bans programs that send personal information from individual computers, as well.

California, Iowa, New York and Virginia also are looking at similar legislation. Congress has joined the fray with a bill, Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge (known as Spyblock). It would require notice and consent before such pro grams could be put on a computer. And South Carolina's U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings has included a section on spyware in a comprehensive bill to establish privacy standards for the Internet.

Spyware, called "adware" by its proponents is software that can show tip in a computer when the owner signs tip for a free service like a file-sharing network or has agreed to receive messages in return for access to a Web site. Spyware usually delivers pop-up ads, sometimes pornographic, to the unsuspecting consumer, but it can have other, more malevolent functions.

Sometimes PCs become sluggish because of the added computing burden of the unwanted programs. And some...