View and vote on the article here: Spyware
Spyware| Category | | | Summary | Spyware. Everyone should know by now what it is and how to prevent it. But for those of you who don't i will explain to you a little about spyware.
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| | Body | Spyware is an ad program which comes along with some programs such as kazaa, audiogalaxy, morpheus (they claim they dont' have spyware anymore), and many other popular P2P software. What spyware causes your computer to do is to "pop-up" an ad window or advertisement every so often. Sometimes it is scheduled and sometimes it can be random. Spyware also monitors your surfing, and may be able to collect sensitive information. After it collects this information, it sends it back to the company for further evaluation.
Have you ever heard of the VX2 Corporation Well this has been the latest case in spyware that i know of. If you have downloaded the currently very popular P2P program audiogalaxy, you may have already been so called "hacked" of your privacy without you even knowing it. Audiogalaxy, after this incident, decided to not distribute it after this fall because of accusations of invading peoples' privacy. As of right now Aadcom is still distributing its program with VX2 included in the software. Once installed, it will send all the sites you have visited to the company to build a user profile. Even in VX2's Privacy Policy it says, and i quote, "VX2's software also collects some information from online forms that you fill out." It also states that it was programmed not to collect sensitive information. But if by chance it "accidentally" recieved sensitive information, they would immediately get rid of it.
In reality, there is no way to check, or verify what they do with the information they collect. Also they choose not the provide information about themselves, but the one thing they do provide, which is an email address, isn't even valid. Audio Galaxy, which bundled VX2's software with its software for a 34-day period ending Nov. 4, 2001, said it doesn't know anything about VX2.
There are many unanswered questions about spyware and how it can affect you and your computer. But fear not, there is a way to get rid of spyware off your computer!! There is a program called Ad-Aware which will search your computer and registry for all spyware products. You can either get the program from www.download.com or go directly to www.lavasoftusa.com. This may have been a review for most of you but for the people it is new to, i hope this will help better inform you on computer security and privacy.
Peace.
St[a]tic` |
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This article was imported from zZine. (original author: d-_-b)
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