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Article - Spyware

Spyware - It’s Lurking on your Machine

Spyware Wisconsin

Your PC may well be infested. According to a recent report from research firm GartnerG2, more than 20 million people have installed adware applications (adware being a type of spyware that reports back on a subject's activities to serve up targeted advertising), and this covers only a portion of the spyware on the loose.

Companies like DoubleClick use small files called cookies to track you online. Others, like WinWhatWhere, sell key loggers, which let others see your every keystroke. Trojan horses like Back Orifice and NetBus let hackers not only track your behavior but even take control of your PC.

In all likelihood, however, you willingly installed much of your spyware yourself when downloading another application. Most file-sharing services—LimeWire-like tools for trading MP3s and other files across the Internet—are bundled with spyware. That's how file-sharing vendors make money while not charging for their products. In a sense, you are paying, but the coin is privacy, not money.

Just how much privacy can spyware cost you? With ad cookies from a company like DoubleClick, you may not have lost much, but there are circumstances in which cookies can be used against you. Spyware like Xupiter and Gator eWallet is different. According to Xupiter's privacy policy, the company records more, including Web log information, IP addresses, browser type and versions, screen resolution, time zone, and version numbers of some software installed on your computer. Gator claims not to collect IP addresses, but it gathers "what software is on the personal computer," your "first name, country, and five-digit ZIP code," and more.

That best way to protect against spyware is to run an application that identifies and removes it. These tools operate much like antivirus software. Their developers have identified hundreds of spyware files, folders, and Registry keys and search for them on your hardware, offering to remove them when they turn up. If you treasure your privacy, these tools are essential. Even if you locate spyware on your own, manually deleting it is difficult. Some spyware includes tricklers, which reinstall files as you delete them. An antispyware program is more likely to be able to eliminate the offenders.

Like virus developers, Internet spymasters race to stay ahead of removal products—successfully, it seems, for the moment. No one product measures up to even the basic standard that antivirus apps must meet. Still, they help control the outward flow of information. And since many are free or offer free scanners, we recommend you at least scan your system to find out what's really on your PC.

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