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What normal internet activity does CFAA make a felony?



According to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the current incarnation of CFAA would make a mere violation of a website’s terms of service, like lying about your age on Facebook a felony.[1]

Another practice would be changing the '1' to a '2' in the URL http://www.example.com/1.pdf, since the computer running www.example.com is a 'protected computer', and you didn't get authorization to access 2.pdf on the server.

"Protected computer" is basically any server. The CFAA defines it as any computer used or affecting "interstate or foreign commerce", which works out to be most of the internet, thanks to CDNs and the practice of centralized data-centers.[2]

[1]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/obama-hackers_n_651... [2]https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030


Connecting to a website when the owner has not specifically invited you to do so is technically an offence under the CFAA.




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