The Spyware Problem
Originally a few people (companies) decided they would like to track where Internet surfers were going while they were surfing. If they could find out exactly what users liked or what they were looking for, they could make a profit by targeting ads to those users. So they started using cookies* that could be 'planted' on a user's computer. The cookie would let them know if the users were coming back to the site and what the user was looking at on the site. The tracking cookie was born. That was all well and good, but only useful to a point.
Now someone really underhanded decided if they could plant little sneaky programs onto users' computers, the program could contact the program owner and let them know about every site the user accessed while surfing. Targeted ads to each user could really generate profits! Spyware was born! But how could they get the users to get the program on their computers? Easy, just offer a free and useful program to the user, something everyone could really use, like a password keeper! Maybe the user doesn't need a password keeper, but who could resist a free screensaver? Or how about a neat little weather forecast alert? So when the unsuspecting user downloaded the free program, the spy program came along with it and installed itself along with the free program!
Eventually savvy computer users started to complain about spy programs being installed on unsuspecting users' computers without their knowledge, so the spy programs being used by some unscrupulous people (companies) put in the EULAS and installers that the spy programs would also be installed. Now when an unsuspecting user downloads and installs a 'free' program and the ugly spy stuff installs, they gave 'permission' for it to be installed by agreeing for it to be installed. They checked the 'I agree' box! Did they read all of the EULA (End User License Agreement)? Of course not, the EULA is so long or uses such legalese language the user doesn't understand it. Sometimes the installer does ask if the user wants to install a spy program, but the terms are vague and if the user isn't really watching, the spy program will get installed without a 'No' box being checked by the user. Some of the really aggressive installers will install the spies anyway, even though the user did check the 'No' box!
Some spyware deliberately targets kids. I find this especially despicable. One of these is Hotbar. Kids are pretty savvy these days, but most of them are just interested in the games offered. Just look at this site to see how kids are targeted: Hotbar Installs via Banner Ads at Kids Sites
There are browser hijackers too. These ugly hijackers will cause a homepage to be changed, usually although not always, to a porn site. Some of these hijackers are very hard to remove and require a commercial spyware remover to get rid of the hijacker unless the user is a real expert at removing junk like this.
So now responsible computer users have to use spyware remover programs. There are some free spyware removers, notably Ad-aware and Spybot, but as the spyware programs grow more and more sophisticated and more insidious the free programs just can't find and/or remove all of them. There are a lot of commercial spyware removers that do a fair job, but no one program can remove them all. So users are forced to use at least three or more spyware removers to remain spyware free. Unfortunately there are a lot of so-called spyware removers that are themselves spyware programs or are rip-offs from other spyware remover programs and they aren't free!
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