Girl Geekette

Spyware and Adware can be very dangerous!

Not every type is as dangerous or as much as a security risk as others. Some types of Adware and Spyware can cause some of your programs to stop working if uninstalled. Others can report sensitive and confidential information to a "3rd" - another - party (who can also sell this information). This information - such as passwords addresses, phone numbers and even credit card numbers and information - can then made public. Some Spyware and Adware can even breach your privacy and make it public to others by taking screenshots and reporting the URL’s (or websites) you visit. It IS something that you want to be careful of.

For parents, some types of Spyware and Adware can produce pornographic websites to be displayed on the computer. This is something all parents should want to protect children from viewing. Would you want a total stranger showing your child pornographic pictures? YUCK!

Most people do not intentionally put it on their computer. In fact, it is just the opposite. If most people knew it was going on their computer, they would take great means to keep it off the computer. If you have ever installed a program on a computer from a CD, you might have gotten Adware and Spyware. If you have ever downloaded a program from the internet that is labeled as “Shareware” or “Freeware” you might also have gotten it when the program was installed.

Many companies try to get you to believe it is necessary for the programs to be installed to view the webpage itself. Be leery of websites and windows such as these wanting you

Although it might not have the bad reputation yet that a computer virus has, in many instances, Adware and Spyware can be worse than a virus. In many cases, it can even be harder to get rid of than a virus is.

For example, lets say you use a search engine on the internet to search for ‘little red Corvette”, Spyware can take this information and use your internet connection to report it back to its server than you are looking for “little red Corvette”. Once this information is sent to its server (using the bandwidth of your internet connection), the server might decide to give you “pop-ups” every time you open your browser of little red Corvette accessories. Maybe the Spyware and Adware goes so far as to make it so every time you open up a new web browser page, a company you have never heard of is displayed in the browser window. Even if you try to change your home page or start page in the browser, no matter what you set your start page it, somehow it is overridden by the page that the Spyware and Adware set it to be.