Like viruses and other malware, spyware is at best annoying, and at worst malicious. It is software that you unknowingly install when you download and install other software. For example, if you install some kind of weather or news feed to your computer, it’s possible that the application has inside it some kind of spyware that isn’t mentioned in the license and use agreement. Spyware can cause serious problems, compromising your computer’s security and potentially sending sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers, to the spyware’s creator.
One of the most common forms of spyware is adware, advertising software, that will either run in the program window itself or in pop-up windows. These advertisements are usually for legitimate products, but they can still be annoying if not intrusive. They can track the web sites you visit and then send that info back to the advertiser. Some people might defend the practice as market research, but the activity can interfere with your computer’s performance, especially if it gets to the point that you have so many popup windows opening that you can’t effectively use your computer.
The good news is that there are several software applications that detect and remove spyware and other malicious programs from your computer. You can safely download these from the Internet at no charge:
Signs that Spyware Might Be on Your Computer
- Bombarded with pop-up ads, especially if you
get pop-up ads when you’re not browsing the Web,
or when you first turn your computer on. - Web browser settings have changed, and you
didn’t change them or you can’t change them
back. For example, when you open your web
browser it uses something other than what you
had set as its home page. - Web browser now has new components or
options in its menus or toolbars. If you have
spyware it’s also likely that even if you remove the
toolbars they’ll reappear the next time you start
your web browser or restart your computer. - Computer seems to be running slowly, and gets
slower all the time. Spyware does its work without
you seeing it, but it’s using your computer’s
memory and processing resources, so it can slow
down your machine. In addition to the machine
running more slowly, you might notice some
programs “crashing” (just quit working) often, or
more often than normal.
