Removing Spyware
By Carey Holzman

‘Spyware’ (sometimes called Ad-ware) is the newest form of software. We currently live in an unusual economy. Software companies will pay programmers to write programs, promote those programs, host huge internet sites and give the software away for free. How can they afford to do that? With a little twisted marketing logic, it’s easy. They include hidden programs within their program that monitor your internet activity. Then it uses your computer and your internet connection to send this information back to them at regular intervals. They can then sell this information to companies who can use it to determine what kinds of items you might be interested in based on the websites that interest you. In short, Spyware is advertising supported software.

Of course the companies that create this software think they’re not doing anything wrong. After all, the user (that’s you!) agreed to the terms and conditions prior to downloading and installing the software. These terms and conditions are typically called an End User License Agreement (EULA) and you must acknowledge that you read and understood them before you are allowed to download or install the software. Most people never read the EULA, and those who do usually have no idea what any of the legal mumbo-jumbo means any how.