spyware

The crap we find in most pop up blockers (believe it or not!) Gator E-Wallet and other things. Let me explain what spyware is. First, it is a myth to say it that spyware is made to harm your computer, though I will explain why it eventually does. It is simply a tracking tool built into another piece of software, and by itself is harmless, though arguably, an invasion of privacy as it tracks your trends to report them to various marketing statistics companies. Fine, fine, we can all do a small part to help the economy this way. However, with about a dozen or so pieces of software on your computer infested with spyware, all trying to track and submit marketing statistics at the same time, your computer becomes slower and slower. This is the harm that it does, and for some people their computer is an annoyance to use. Programs may take a minute to open, the computer takes minutes to load, and multitasking may cause the computer to freeze. The problem of spyware became a harmful problem, I believe, in the past year when many software companies added spyware to their software around the same timeframe. It was hard not to find software without spyware. HERE ARE THE MAIN FACTS: Spyware can track your Internet activity. Spyware can change your search page. Spyware can change your homepage. Spyware can change your "not found" page. Spyware can slow down your computer. Spyware installs itself within another piece of software. Spyware is not included in all software. Some spyware is harmless while another can take more advantage of your computer's processing capability. It is not the end of the world to have spyware on your computer as long as you are able to delete it. Spyware is commonly found in (some) pop-up blockers, (some) browser toolbars and (some) other addons. Spyware is also the common cause of dreaded infinate pop-ups. This happens when you find a link, click on it, and are spammed with "Page Not Found"s. The main way, and what I believe is the best way, to delete it is to use a Swedish (it uses English, but it was made in sweden) called Ad-Aware 6.0. The program is free unless you want an internet watcher with it. It takes only a minute or two to scan and the first time I scanned, I deleted over 500 files of multiplying spyware on my c: drive! ALL computers should get scanned at least once a week, because I find my spyware multiplies 5 times a day.