What is spyware?
Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without the user's knowledge which gathers information about that user for later retrieval by whomever controls the spyware. 
Spyware can be broken down into two different categories, surveillance spyware and advertising spyware. 
Surveillance software includes key loggers, screen capture devices, and trojans. These would be used by corporations, private detectives, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, suspicious spouses, etc. 
Advertising spyware is software that is installed alongside other software or via activex controls on the internet, often without the user's knowledge, or without full disclosure that it will be used for gathering personal information and/or showing the user ads. Advertising spyware logs information about the user, possibly including passwords, email addresses, web browsing history, online buying habits, the computer's hardware and software configuration, the name, age, sex, etc of the user. 
As with spam, advertising spyware uses the CPU, RAM, and resources of the user's computer, making the user pay for the costs associated with operating it. It then makes use of the user's bandwidth to connect to the internet and upload whatever personal information it has gathered, and to download advertisements which it will present to the user, either by way of pop up windows, or with the ad banners of ad-supported software. All of this can be considered theft in the cases of advertising spyware that installs without disclosure. 


Who are the main purveyors of spyware?
The biggest culprits in spreading spyware are the popular peer-to-peer programs available today. Bearshare, Kazaa, Imesh, Limewire - all of these products install multiple advertising spyware applications. It's gotten so bad that I now assume all p2p programs bundle spyware unless I've tested them personally. 
I've even started a list of p2p programs that I've tested and proven to be spyware-free. I am the only person allowed to post to this list. If someone wants a program added to this list, I have to test it first and log the installation activity before I'll add it. Tragically, this list has very few products on it. If nothing else, that should tell you how bad the problem is. 


The problem with spyware
My objection to spyware is not just the loss of privacy. That's bad enough. What is also repulsive are the methods these companies use to present users with their advertisements. They spawn pop up and pop under ads, latch onto the Internet Explorer browser like leeches to force the start and search pages to their "partner" sites, make advertisements out of plain text on web sites where they have no arrangement with the author of the content. 
Often these advertisements are pornographic in nature and make no allowance for underage users who may be using the computer. Let me quote two of my visitors whose browsers were hijacked: 

Mike........ I am attaching a copy of my internet temp file where the sites I was hijacked to are located.......this was not the site that did the hijacking, as we had never opened any porn sites--we dont know how we got hijacked..............we called a computer pro this morning, who walked my husband through 30 minutes of steps, found an "hta" file, and a "kernel" in the start up mode, deleted both, and everything seems to be working now..........I still have the "hta" file in my recycle box, and can send that to you to if you'd like (I just dont want to infect your system!!!) This is really a disgusting thing to have happen.........my TEN YEAR OLD daughter is the one who first opened the Internet when our home page came up with the porn, and it was terrible!!! The bigger problem was that every few minutes, more porn pages would open by themselves!!!!! 
Note: After this situation occurred, the leading anti-virus software makers determined that the file in question is a virus, now labeled js/noclose, and is now a target of most anti-virus software.


Yes, that site was disgusting, and poor Dave endured more than that. When I checked out his temporary Internet files, he had something like 40 - 50 temp files from different child porn sites all timestamped within about 4 minutes. Because that one page he was directed to didn't have a close button and because he had no clue how to end a task via the task manager, he was clicking all over the place trying to "get out." When he called me in a panic at work, he was saying, "everytime I close one window, 5 more pop-up!" 
What's really sad is what he said to me last night. He said if it hadn't been for me, he would have thrown the PC out. He said there's no way he could have taken it to computer repair shop and let them think he was into child porn. I tried to assure him that they see this crap all the time and know how it works. 
The site we were discussing was full of graphics of nude young girls who are obviously not 18 years old. Some of them hadn't gone through puberty yet. I was tempted to report this site to the FBI, but it was down the next time I looked. 
I think such methods of generating revenue are disgusting. The spyware companies treat users like livestock to be branded with tracking devices and monitored as they conduct their personal business. They are parasites on the body of the internet, and my web site and others like it are dedicated to putting them out of business. 


Spyware Weekly