Many civil remedies designed to protect privacy in the physical world
are proving to be feeble solutions for privacy problems in cyberspace.
Software vendors amplify those problems by preempting consumer
protections through adhesive end-user license agreements. One civil
action-the tort of intrusion upon seclusion-may provide a remedy to
consumers when software vendors invade their privacy. This Comment
presents the first comprehensive application of the intrusion tort to software
vendors, and argues that vendors should be liable when they access private
information without notice and authorization-particularly if the information
could not, until recently, be accessed without a physical intrusion. It then
applies that framework to one real-world incident in which Sony installed
monitoring software on consumers' computers without notice and
authorization. Finally, this Comment concludes by addressing the practical
difficulties and chief benefits of applying the intrusion tort to software vendors.
