PENNSYLVANIA COMPUTER SECURITY http://www.goerie.com/article/20120621/NEWS02/306219887/North-East-company-reaches-settlement-in-software-case

PUBLISHED: JUNE 21, 2012 1:08 PM EST
UPDATED: JUNE 21, 2012 1:08 PM EST

North East company reaches settlement in software case

STAFF REPORT, Erie Times-News 

A judge in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Erie has approved a settlement between a North East software company and the Federal Trade Commission over the company's use of computer-monitoring technology.

Under the consent decree, DesignerWare LLC agreed to scale back the technology, which allows rent-to-own companies track the whereabouts of rented computers.

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas P. Agresti approved the settlement today. The FTC is expected to sign off on the deal in a vote by its commissioners.

The agreement involves no monetary damages. DesignerWare, owned by Tim Kelly, of North East, has said it did nothing wrong.

DesignerWare's PC Rental Agent software allows rent-to-own retailers to secretly capture a rental-computer user's keystrokes and screen images and also take a picture of the user with the computer's Web camera.

Under the consent decree, DesignerWare agreed to abandon those monitoring aspects of the technology and limit its tracking features to technology that will report the physical location of a stolen computer.

DesignerWare filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March.