Spyware is software that gathers user information through the user's Internet connection usually without his or her knowledge, sometimes for advertising purposes but more commonly for more sinister purposes. Spyware is downloaded through the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about email addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers before you remove spyware and can also make your computer a Bot or robot that can send spam emails or distribute more spyware.
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Spywareis similar to a
Trojan Horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer to peer file swapping products that are available today.
Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, spyware steals from the user by using the computer's memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware's home base via the user's Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability.
Spyware has the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on your Web Browser, consistently relaying this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party.
Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a spyware installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimer.