What is spyware?
The definition of spyware varies depending on who you ask. The calling card of a spy is that it is sneaky and not easily noticed. My own take on the matter is that spyware is any software that performs sneaky activities behind the user’s back–these activities can range from installing itself onto your computer, gathering information on you and transmitting it across the Internet, downloading files or running programs on your computer, messing with your system settings, or even trying to silently pass itself on to others. Like a real spy, it may don disguises to hide itself and its intentions. It will try very hard not to be noticed. It will persist in the background even after you tell it to go away. It might even try to hide from you if it knows you’re looking for it!
Spyware is a term that refers to other software that is installed in conjunction with a program, with or without the user’s knowledge, and which performs activities on the users’ machine without their express permission. Spyware may be used to serve advertising, to modify Internet browser settings, or to report your computer habits to another person or company. Spyware known as “Trojans” may use your computer to perform information processing for third parties. As you can imagine, Spyware can seriously slow down your computer. Turning off this server capability requires the use of certain scanning tools.
The term spyware refers to software that gathers personal information from your computer, sometimes without your knowledge. The information is often used for advertising purposes. Spyware may cause your computer to slow down or encounter errors. Spyware has also been known to cause unwanted pop-up advertisements, an inability to connect to the Internet, and problems printing.
