Why such a big concern on spyware?

[bob05]

Hey,

I was recently scanning my PC with Ad-aware 6.0, and it got me thinking, why is everyone in such a tizzy about spyware? Even if you are doing illegal things, I don't know how much of what spyware found as evidence can be used in court. And that brings me up to another point, how many people have you heard of being convicted of a crime because of what spyware found out (other than Kazza and other P2P programs)? Other than slowing a computer down (or doing something like hijacking a computer or key loggers), I can't imagine how spyware is harmful. I will still scan for it, and I hope it doesn't get on my PC, but, how much of a threat does spyware truly pose?

Thanxs

[Vampiel]

Spyware can hijack your browser, send information such as email addy's, addresses, to companies that will pay for it and spam you or send you garbage mail. Some of them can be more malicous and act more like a virus.

[bob05]

Originally posted by Vampiel
Spyware can hijack your browser, send information such as email addy's, addresses, to companies that will pay for it and spam you or send you garbage mail. Some of them can be more malicous and act more like a virus.

Yeah, I'm not talking about the malicious ones, those are more of a virus.

[urdvurk]

Spyware uses your computer for its own ends without your knowledge or consent. It makes information about you available to others, which is why it's called spyware: it spies on you. Surely that's bad enough?

[RamonGTP]

Originally posted by bob05
Yeah, I'm not talking about the malicious ones, those are more of a virus.

IMO, all spyware is malicious.

[dajogejr]

Bob...sorry...ol buddy.

But that statement is pretty...uh..silly...



"What does spyware do other than slow your PC down or hijack your browser..."

Like, even if it was ONLY that...it isn't enough?

I'm with GTP...if it tries to send pop ups based on my browsing habits....or, let people by my email address to spam the heck out of me...I'm not happy...

Next...are you gonna say 100 Viagra, Real Estate deals and helping out Jaun in Puerto Rico with his financial plans is ok to see in your inbox?

C'mon now...

[r8500]

spyware sucks, plain and simple, and there is no place for it on my workstation. It could be banned, along with spam and telemarketing.

[millwork]

There's SpyWare that can ultimately change your default browser to another one. I read about this happening with a new browser which looked just like MSN's. Once that happened (almost undetectable), the user's credit card number and lots of other privacy information was stolen.

John B.

[bushmaster]

Simply spyware uses cycles that belong to me, and not to some miscreant group of advertisers looking for a more focused way to spam me.

I can't tell you how many times I get calls to homes where their PC has slowed to a crawl and has become unstable because of all the ad and spy-ware seething through it.

Spy-ware is to a PC as crab lice are to a human being.

[Razielian]

I don't care if ppl "spy" on my.. I just want my cpu to run well.
I think pc prefomance is enough reason..
Why pay $$$ for a pc for gaming when all the spy ware kills it by 15%.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Its all about performance, i'll grab whatever i can get of it, and most of all, i dont want unsolicited programs/software taking it from me

--Jakk

[rsfnatik]

It's an issue of performance and privacy.

Spyware/Adware has the capacity to negatively affect the performance of a comprimised system and intrude upon a users enjoyment/use of the system. Beyond that, and of greater concern IMO, personal information is also at risk. For those using systems to transmit personal/financial information or access other (secure) systems the impact can be huge.

Even if the actions are not malicious isn't the intrusion enough to cause alarm? It is for me.

[bonz_dragon]

I was hijacked a few months ago which changed browser settings and would make my home page the homepage for some adult porn site. My kids don't need to see that!

Even with Adaware, Spybot S&D, and AVG it was hijacked. Had to download 2 more programs to get rid of it.
I find Adult porn sites and chat room the biggest threat with this stuff and am having a hard time keeping a teen out of them! Short of a complete ban from the internet.

[Johnny Fist]

I wouldn't really care about spyware if it weren't for the fact that it tends to slow down a computer over time. I can care less about spam and what have you. The performance loss is what I'm concerned with.

[Picard]

Originally posted by bob05
Yeah, I'm not talking about the malicious ones, those are more of a virus.

LOL. Clueless. All spyware is malicious. Someone took a virus, gave it a user agreement, and spyware was born. It is not, nor has it ever been about spying, and end user's activity, it is and always has been about security, and ethics. It prey's on end user's ignorance. In your case, naiveness. It interferes with normal functions of a pc, makes users vulnerable to identity theft, saps internet bandwidth - not just the users, everybodies. There's a reason Anitvirus programs are beginning to include spyware in their virus definition files.