What Is Spyware?

• Viruses - programs that copy themselves from computer to computer often causing damage along the way.
  
  
• Trojans - programs that appear to benign or even helpful, but which actually perform a malicious function.
  
  
• Dialers - programs that cause a person's computer to make telephone calls (often unauthorized telephone calls) to premium rate numbers.
  
  
• Key Loggers - programs that record a user's keystrokes or screen activities and forward the information to a third party. This information may include confidential or personal details such as passwords, credit card numbers, etc.
  
  
• Unauthorized Adware - programs that cause adverts, often in the form of pop-ups, to be displayed on a user's computer, and which have been installed without the user's consent (of course if a computer-owner chooses to install a program that displays adverts on his computer, that is his personal choice, and such a program would not be classified as malware).
  
  
• Spyware - programs that, without authorization, collect personal information about the user, such as web sites visited, etc. (of course if a computer-owner knowingly chooses to provide access to certain personal information, that is his personal choice, and software involved in such transactions would not be classified as malware).

1. Some websites include malicious code that exploits bugs in users' web browsers, such that software can be downloaded and installed in the background without the users' knowledge or consent.
   
   
2. Some websites use social engineering tricks to get the user to agree to downloading software. For example, a website may present the user with a blizzard of pop-ups, each of which has to be dismissed by clicking "Yes", an in the middle of this blizzard is the dialog box asking if the user wishes to download and install some spyware software ("Yes" or "No"), tricking many people into agreeing to install the spyware.
   
   
3. Some malware programs spread by spam. For example, if one person's computer is infected, the program may send emails to everybody in that person's address book with a copy of itself attached and labelled as something else.
   
   
4. Sometimes adware (or even spyware) programs have been bundled with other applications. For example, a user may download or install one particular program, and later find that adware or spyware was installed on their computer too!
   
   
   • In some cases, part of the bargain of getting the free or cheap software is to allow adverts to be shown on your computer in return. If the software is clearly labelled as containing advertising of this type, and the user knows and agrees, then that is of course the user's choice. Software containing advertising of this type, should not therefore be labelled as "malware".
     
     
   • In other cases, it has been known for software authors to actively conceal the fact that their software displays adverts, and/or to hinder the removal of the advertising software even if the application that it came with is removed.
     
     
   • There are also of course many difficult issues and some grey areas.
     
     For example:
     
     
     • How clear does the labelling of software containing advertising have to be?
     • How easy does the uninstallation of the advertising software have to be?
     • Can a person who is not the owner of the computer (for example a teenager using instant messaging software) properly consent to the installation of adware?
     
     We are not going to try and answer all these questions, but it's something that both users and software-developers need to think more seriously about in future. Be aware, these matter are not just technical issues, but often social and psychological ones too - for example, we all know that something can be absolutely clear for one person, yet remain totally confusing and opaque to another.