Spyware and Your Privacy.

Spyware that invades our rights to privacy while browsing the web from our own home or office is becoming altogether too commonplace and sophisticated lately.

To make matters worse, spyware and malware invasions of our privacy by nefarious means seems to have spread to many of those very organizations who proclaim their protection of our interest the loudest: many major ISPs, computer makers, web hosts, freeware apps, "Anti-Spyware sites" that foist their own treacherous spyware on you like the proverbial wolves in sheep's clothiing, and so on, ad nauseum.

The term spyware suggests a software app that monitors the user's computing in secret, but the actions of spyware apps usually extend well beyond monitoring. Spyware and malware programs often collect personal information, like your web surfing habits and websites that you visit, but they can also interfere with your control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software (web-bots) and redirecting browser activity.

Since money seems to be the primary concern on much of the internet, you may want to consider the real motivation behind many of the current websites, freeware sites, and so forth that you come in contact with on the web. This includes, by the way, more than a few websites that profess to respect your privacy. Of all the 'cons' prevelant on the internet these days, this last type of leech irritates me the most.

There are a number of respected sites that, either by way of being purposely deceptive or through carelessness as to content, have bowed to monetary advantage and use their very respectability as a means to freely deliver their subterfuge to you. In the past few months we have found seven popular freeware programs with executable spyware hidden in their innards. One app had a 124 kb exe that reports a wealth of information surrepticiously. A good rule of thumb is to be at least a little suspicious of anything that is offered as free.

If you are one of those who, like myself, have been 'bitten' by dubious cookies, adware, malware or other spyware, drop me a line and I'll research it; if it turns into an article I'll be sure to give you credit for the tip.

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