SpyWare

Today, probably without your knowledge or consent, your personal information is up for sale. This includes your name, address, date of birth, social security number, financial information, medical information, and buying habits. Spyware (also known as foistware and malware) is enabling the quiet exchange of data between your computer and anything else it connects to on the Internet, and it is a hot topic. Privacy advocates are up in arms, questioning the ethics and legalities of the current advertising and marketing practices. The majority of today's computer users are unaware that their activity on the Internet is not anonymous, that companies are violating their privacy with a variety of activity monitoring products and then selling their personal information; unless the general public wishes to see lifestyle profiling become a norm, education regarding the existence, detection, and removal of these invasive products is needed, along with a strong vocalization of consumer expectations of privacy in cyberspace.

There are many labels to describe spyware, including adware, scumware, drug dealer ware, Trojans, cookies, web bugs, and key logging. The terms adware and spyware are used interchangeably, although the term spyware has grown to encompass additional software and hardware products. Each of these 1000+/- products has its own unique characteristics and methods for spying on a computer user.

Spyware is a generic term and generally refers to any technology whose purpose is to collect personal information without the knowledge or consent of the user. There are three primary reasons that spyware exists: to gather marketing data, to hack, and to monitor people.