What is spyware?

Spyware is ANY SOFTWARE which employs a user's Internet connection in the background (the so-called "backchannel") without their knowledge or explicit permission.

Silent background use of an Internet "backchannel" connection MUST BE PRECEDED by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed backchannel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed, consent for such use.

ANY SOFTWARE communicating across the Internet absent of these elements is guilty of information theft and is properly and rightfully termed: Spyware.

Another potential problem is that many are poorly written, "contain bugs or errors", and can cause problems with the normal operation of your computer. If your web-browser experiences "General Protection Faults", hangs, or freezes it may be due to one or more of these types of programme interfering with its proper function.

How does that work?

1: Happy Netizen 'A' downloads what is apparently a free and useful software utility. "Hooray and thankyou wonderful company for providing me with these free tools to use on my computer" says 'A' gratefully.

2: Netizen 'A' does the usual thing of installing the programme without even blinking at the License Agreement or Privacy Policy, that is if they are even there or anything them it pertains to the hidden capabilities of the software.

3: When the programme is installed it also bundles in some other extra bits from certain advertising or marketing agencies. These are usually plugins designed for forwarding advertisements to the software that will run when it is being used, ad revenue subsidizes the software so that you get it for free or at a discount, so fare enough the software makers should get something in return for their hard work.

4: Then 'A' gets bored with the software and removes it from their computer, or just doesn't use it.....

5: Why then should 'A's computer suddenly be sending information in the background to a web address they've never heard of before when 'A' connects to the internet? That's right the issue is not that things are being uploaded ie. Banner Ads to run in certain software but that information is being sent without 'A's permission, even when the software it came with isn't being used or has even been removed. The nature of what information is being sent by this sort of software is highly debated. Admittedly in most cases its nothing to worry about, but the fact that it is diificult to remove or stop is cause enough for concern in itself.

6. On Steve Gibsons website you can see full examples of the types of information he discovered was being downloaded by Spyware.

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