Why is it called "spyware" ?
While this may be a great concept, the downside is that the advertising companies also install additional tracking software on your system, which is continuously "calling home" , using your internet connection and reports statistical data to the "mothership". While according to the privacy policies of the companies, there will be no sensitive or identifying data collected from your system and you shell remain anonymous, it still remains the fact, that you have a "live" server sitting on your PC that is sending information about you and your surfing habits to a remote location....
Are all Adware products "spyware"?
No, but the majority are. There are also products that do display advertising but do not install any tracking mechanism on your system. There products are not indexed in the database.
Is Spyware illegal?
Even though the name may indicate so, Spyware is not illeqal (but i would like it to be lol) type of software in any way. However there are certain issues that a privacy oriented user may object to and therefore prefer not to use the product. This usually involves the tracking and sending of data and statistics via a server installed on the user's PC and the use of your internet connection in the background.
Removing Spyware:
There is a light at the end of the tunnel lol. you can remove spyware from your system. (how do i do this?) Easy there are many different kinds of spyware removal software. Ortho I tend to use Ad-aware 6.0 Pro and Spybot Search and Destroy. you can find this software on the links above.
A computer Virus, Self-replicating computer progam that interferes with your computer's hardware ot operating sysem (Window's XP, Windows 98SE). Most Viruses are designed to replicate and elude detection. Like any other computer program, a virus must be executed to function that is, it must be loaded from the computer's memory, and the virus's instructions must then be followed by the computer. These instructions are called the payload of the virus. The payload may disrupt or change data files, dispaly a message, or cause the operating system to melfunction.
some viruses have the ability to attach themselves to other programs. The virus attachment may occur when the legitimate program is created, opened, or modified. When that program is run, so is the virus. Viruses can also hide on a portions of your hard disk or floppy disk that load and run the operating system when the computer is started, and such viruses thereby are run automatically. There are about six categories of viruses: parasitic, bootstrap sector, multi-partite, companion, link, and data file. Parasitic viruses infect executable files or progams in the computer, They leave the contents of the host program unchanged but append to the host in such a way that the virus code is run first. These viruses can be either direct-action or resident. A direct-action virus selects one or more programs to infect each time it is executed. A resident virus hides in the computer's memory and infects a particular program when that progam is executed. Bootstrap-sector viruses reside on the first portion of the hard disk or floppy disk, Known as the boot sector, and replace either the programs that store information about the disk's contents or the programs that start the computer. Typically, these viruses spread by means of the physical exchange of floppy disks. Multi-partite viruses combine the abilties of the parasitic and the bootstrap-sector viruses, infecting either files or boot sectors.