I Can See You - Using Spy Software for Good and Evil Fargo ND

Posted by : Joe DeRouen

Have you ever downloaded a hot new shareware title only to realize later that, upon installation, the program also installed software to spy on you? It sounds positively Draconian, but it's true. In fact, you probably have at least one piece of spyware on your computer right now.

And what, exactly, is spyware? Spyware is slang for advertising-supported software, sometimes also referred to as adware. Using banner ads within the software (such as in WeatherBug, a popular desktop weather forecasting program), the authors gain revenue from companies willing to pay for the exposure, and thus are able to offer their program for free. This way, you don't have to pay for the software but the author still gets paid. And if you don't want to look at the ads, there is usually an option to pay a licensing fee to remove them.

While this probably sounds good so far, the downside is that some of the advertising companies may also install additional tracking software on your PC--software that's continually reporting in to the company on your surfing habits. And while, according to most companies, the data collected from your system remains anonymous, the fact is, not all companies are quite so scrupulous. Add that to the fact that you have a live server transmitting from your PC and taking up valuable bandwidth and slowing down your system and you can see why many people have a problem with spyware.

Sweeping for spies

Fortunately several companie...

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