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Ad-Aware
SE Personal Edition 1.06 Spy-ware Spy-ware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spy-ware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spy-ware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program. Data collecting programs that are installed with the user's knowledge are not, properly speaking, spy-ware, if the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared. However, spy-ware is often installed without the user's consent, as a drive-by download, or as the result of clicking some option in a deceptive pop-up window. ad-ware, software designed to serve advertising, can usually be thought of as spy-ware as well because it almost invariably includes components for tracking and reporting user information. The cookie is a well-known mechanism for storing information about an Internet user on their own computer. However, the existence of cookies and their use is generally not concealed from users, who can also disallow access to cookie information. Nevertheless, to the extent that a Web site stores information about you in a cookie that you don't know about, the cookie mechanism could be considered a form of spyware Adware 1) Generically, ad-ware (spelled all lower case) is any software application in which advertising banners are displayed while the program is running. The authors of these applications include additional code that delivers the ads, which can be viewed through pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen. The justification for ad-ware is that it helps recover programming development cost and helps to hold down the cost for the user.Ad-ware has been criticized because it usually includes code that tracks a user's personal information and passes it on to third parties, without the user's authorization or knowledge. This practice has been dubbed spy-ware and has prompted an outcry from computer security and privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Noted privacy software expert Steve Gibson of Gibson Research explains: "Spy-ware is any software (that) employs a user's Internet connection in the background (the so-called 'back-channel') without their knowledge or explicit permission. Silent background use of an Internet 'back-channel' connection must be preceded by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed back-channel 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: Spy-ware." A number of software applications, including Ad-Aware and Opt-Out (by Gibson's company), are available as freeware to help computer users search for and remove suspected spy-ware programs. 2) Ad-Ware is also a registered
trademark that belongs to Ad-Ware Systems, Inc. Ad-Ware
Systems builds accounting and media buying systems for the
advertising industry and has no connection to pop-up
advertising, spy-ware, or other invasive forms of online
advertising.
Official
definitions for Spy-ware
and Ad-ware
from Whatis.com |
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