Differences between version 7 and revision by previous author of SpyWare.
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| Newer page: | version 7 | Last edited on Saturday, September 11, 2004 3:45:28 pm | by CraigBox | Revert |
| Older page: | version 5 | Last edited on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 4:02:40 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
In general, SpyWare is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge in order to build profiles. The collecting party is usually of the advertiser variety. SpyWare usually comes in the form of software included with "[free] downloads" from the Web, where the licence agreement (which most users accept without reading) may mention that information about your habits will be transmitted back to the company. It may however also come as the payload of a [Virus], or just by clicking on a button in some pop-up ad window. SpyWare is cause for public concern about privacy on the InterNet.
Data collection programs that are installed with the user's knowledge are not, properly speaking, SpyWare, if the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared.
-This type of software generally only affects [Windows] systems, where it will often lead to greatly degrated system stability. If you're running [Linux] or [FreeBSD] you're probably never going to be bothered by [
large purple monkeys | BonziBuddy]
or yellow links.
+This type of software generally only affects [Windows] systems, where it will often lead to greatly degrated system stability. If you're running [Linux] or [FreeBSD] you're probably never going to be bothered by large pop-up
purple monkeys or yellow links.
Examples include:
-* BonziBuddy
+* !BonzaiBuddy
* Comet-cursor
* Gator claims to provide useful utilities for remembering web form details, calendar/date applet, etc but really provides pop-up ads.
* !HotBar claims to provide an IE toolbar but really provides ads. Use [Google]'s [toolbar | http://toolbar.google.com] instead.
* New.net claims to provide new [TLD]s like .cool, .cars, .boats etc but really provides (you guessed it) ads. Instead use common sense -- a reputable company will get a name on the real InterNet.
