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SPYWARE: IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU
The advertising industry just can’t seem to get enough of you.

In cyberspace, fallout from the "tech wreck" seems to have left companies that specialize in gathering marketing data unscathed. While e-commerce start-ups, Web portals and Internet consulting firms went belly up by the barrelful, efforts to collect, quantify and aggregate data about your interests, buying habits and lifestyle choices continue unabated. One of the more recent salvos in the war for your personal information is the introduction of "spyware."

Spyware refers to a program or Web browser plug-in that surreptitiously gathers information about your online habits and relays that information to advertisers, marketing organizations or other interested parties. The most common ways spyware can find its way onto your system are through a software virus or from downloading free software that contains a spyware utility.

File sharing software and download managers—applications that negotiate and regulate file downloads in place of built-in operating system tools—are common repositories for spyware. Like the "scumware" described in the April 2002 CyberNews, many times the only mention of the presence of a spyware utility is in the lengthy terms-of-service agreements to which many of us agree without reading thoroughly.

Once on your system, the spy-ware can keep a log of the Web sites you visit and files you download, secretly relaying that information to interested parties during your next online session. For the broadband subscriber with an "always-on" Internet connection, this can go on at any time of day or night. Some programs are designed to transmit information only when a computer is idle—indicated by a lack of keyboard or mouse activity—so a user won’t be tipped off when he or she sees flashing modem lights or hears the hard drive being accessed. Many spyware utilities remain on your system even after you uninstall the applications with which they were bundled.

This invasion of privacy can get particularly ugly when the stolen data is matched up with the name, e-mail address and other personal information you may have given when registering to download the product, providing a detailed profile of your specific online habits and interests. Such information is very valuable in the advertising world, and unscrupulous businesses will go to great lengths to collect it.

What can you do if there are shareware programs you’d like to use but you fear the intrusion of spyware? Luckily, there are at least two comprehensive databases you can use to check out the targeted software. Online, you can visit Spy-checker ("www.spychecker.com") to search against a database of known spyware-bugged applications. Camtech 2000’s Spy Chaser is a downloadable database offering the same functionality. To download Spy Chaser free of charge, visit "camtech2000.net/Pages/ SpyChaser.html".

If you suspect you already may have a piece of spyware lurking on your system, you can download and run Lavasoft’s free Ad-aware spy-ware detection and removal utility. Ad-aware can conduct a thorough scan of your system’s memory, registry and drives for spyware and eliminate it. To obtain a copy of Ad-aware, visit the Lavasoft Web site at "www.lavasoftusa.com".

Reported by Joe Hoyle, electronic media editor, "hoylej{at}ada.org".

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation