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the spyware war

Spyware generally refers to “software whose purpose is to collect demographic and usage information from your computer,” normally for advertising. However, spyware is merely internet jargon, and it can refer to many different things including what some describe as “Backdoor Trojan Horses that allow hackers to secretly gain information from computer[s]. The type of gathered information differs depending on the spyware. Some spyware sends only system-specific information; other spyware sends personal information including browsing habits.” The main issue is that most users haven’t the faintest idea that their computer is infected with spyware applications. This paper will discuss how spyware is distributed, what it’s purpose is, whether or not it is legal, and it will explore both points of view on weather or not it should be outlawed.

Spyware usually finds its way onto a computer by being “piggybacked” by a shareware application. “Piggybacking is where spyware, knowingly or unknowingly, is installed along with a real program. For example, users of the popular file-swapping program Kazaa must also install Cydoor, an adware program. Some spyware programs even stay resident on a user’s c

Additionally, these adware applications

The largest Adware Company is Gator, which was recently receiving so much negative press that they decided to change their name to Claria Corp. Claria Corp. has been a law abiding company using licensing agreements during the installation processes. By hitting the agree button, users are giving permission to have adware installed. Programmers “use their deceptive programming and lengthy license agreements to essentially trick individuals into complete agreement.” Which as a result makes everything perfectly legal; “there are absolutely no laws that ban any of the[se] actions” Because Claria has been using legitimate business practices, “Claria is. . .fighting to disassociate itself from the term "spyware." In recent weeks, it launched a legal offensive to divorce its name from the hated term . . . [Additionally] in response to a libel lawsuit, anti-spyware Company PC Pitstop has settled with [Claria] and pulled Web pages critical of [Claria], its practices and its software.” Now Claria exclusively refers to itself as a behavioral marketing services company.

The most common and thus the most controversial type of spyware is used for gathering data on internet usage tendencies. “Companies track a user’s web browsing and use this information to display correlating banner ads.” This is the type of spyware that is commonly referred to as adware.

No matter what you call it, these programs are hated by the masses, “Spyware modules have been implicated in compute

Some topics in this essay:
Screen Death, Trojan Horses, Macrovision Safecast, Claria Corp, CuteFTP Uninstalling, PC Pitstop, War Spyware, Radiate/Aureate Media, Company Gator, license agreements, Illegal Operation, license agreement, lengthy license, lengthy license agreement, adware program, behavioral marketing, individual company, type advertisement, spyware sends, type spyware, claria corp,