spyware

[froggyjoe]

I found this very interesting. Spyware: Make sure you are not infected with Spyware! One of the main features of Spyware applications is to "hijack" referral information. For example, if you click on a merchant from  cash site Shopping page and are infected with Spyware, the Spyware application overwrites the tracking information with their own. Thus, the creator of the Spyware application is credited for the transaction and earns commision while the cash site does not.

[jazzy3098]

I found this very interesting. Spyware: Make sure you are not infected with Spyware! One of the main features of Spyware applications is to "hijack" referral information. For example, if you click on a merchant from  cash site Shopping page and are infected with Spyware, the Spyware application overwrites the tracking information with their own. Thus, the creator of the Spyware application is credited for the transaction and earns commision while the cash site does not.

Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent.

While the term spyware suggests software that secretly monitors the user's behavior, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habit, sites that have visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, redirecting Web browser activity, accessing websites blindly that will cause more harmful viruses, or diverting advertising revenue to a third party. Spyware can even change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and loss of Internet or other programs. In an attempt to increase the understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive software.

In response to the emergence of spyware, a small industry has sprung up dealing in anti-spyware software. Running anti-spyware software has become a widely recognized element of computer security best practices for Microsoft Windows desktop computers. A number of jurisdictions have passed anti-spyware laws, which usually target any software that is surreptitiously installed to control a user's computer.

[jazzy3098]

 Anti-spyware programs
 
Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 2007 Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products designed to remove or block spyware. Steve Gibson's OptOut pioneered a growing category. Programs such as Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE and Patrick Kolla's Spybot - Search & Destroy rapidly gained popularity as effective tools to remove, and in some cases intercept, spyware programs. More recently Microsoft acquired the GIANT AntiSpyware software, rebranding it as Windows AntiSpyware beta and releasing it as a free download for Genuine Windows XP and Windows 2003 users. In 2006, Microsoft renamed the beta software to Windows Defender, and it was released as a free download in October 2006. Microsoft currently ships the product for free with Windows Vista.Other well-known anti-spyware products include:

PC Tools's Spyware Doctor
Sunbelt Software's Counterspy
Trend Micro's HijackThis
Webroot Software's Spy Sweeper
ParetoLogic's Anti-Spyware and XoftSpy SE