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Articles
> Hosted advertisement supported software (a.k.a. Spyware)
By
Henderson Computers
June 2000
(updated October 2002)
What is *Spyware?
- Spyware (the common term for hosted advertisement supported
software) often infiltrates your system by trojan means (see -
Trojan Attacks
and Are you being hacked?
for more information on this method). It cannot be considered a
trojan in the classic sense however as its presence in the host
application is intentional. To date there are 100's of commonly
downloaded applications that are infested with one form or another of
*Spyware - view
the list at GRC.
What is
hosted advertisement supported software? - You have likely seen
constantly changing banner ad's incorporated into software you
download of the internet. This is hosted advertisement supported
software. Hosted advertisement software is often free because it is
the advertisers who ultimately pay for the costs incured in
development and further the profits. I have no beef that advertising
is a legitamate means of supporting devlopers who otherwise may never
have been able to produce such work, but read on to see exactly what
the beef is...
By downloading
and installing a *Spyware infested application, you are often
unwittingly also installing a "reciever/transmitter". This
reciever/transmitter may gather personal information, and at periodic
intervals, will transfer it's stealthy booty of *stolen information
back to a marketing company. In many cases, all this happens without
your knowledge. Due to bad press, some of the *Spyware companies have
improved their disclosure of these practices, but some have not, and
still others have made the disclosure but buried it in the licence
agreement in such legalese type langauge that you'll likely still not
understand what you are agreeing to. Personally, I find this type of
practise the most despicable of privacy violation acts. I perceive it
to be no different to mounting a hidden video camera in your bathroom
and broadcasting the events therein to the world. While the
investigations of exactly what various *Spyware systems do or do not
diseminate about you are still pending and ongoing, there are enough
facts at hand to warrant concern and raise serious ethical questions.
What
information the marketing companies do or do not receive from your
computer is beside the point, just as what they do or don't do with
the video tape of your bathroom habits is beside the point.
Unfortunately
many virus scanners will not detect *Spyware systems as they are
viewed by a virus scanner as an application. To remove it, you need
to use OptOut
from Gibson Research. To protect yourself in the future, periodically
run OptOut to check your system is clean. As a further precaution for
this and other types of infection, install a firewall - also see
our article, Are you being hacked?. The
firewall (we recommend ZoneAlarm
from ZoneLabs) will warn you not only of attempts to access your
computer from an external source, but also warn you of what local
programmes are trying to access the Internet.
TOP
* Stolen - is
used in the sense that you may not have given explicit permission to
gather information. Nor may you have explicitly agreed to the use of
your bandwith for such practices.
*Spyware - It
is still being determined exactly what the various *Spyware systems
do or do not diseminate about you, but often their method of
installation and operation makes the provisional term (in my opinion) fitting.
Legal information
This article
is protected by copyright 2000, Henderson Computers.
This article
may not be reproduced in any form (part, whole, or modified) by any
means without the express permission of Henderson Computers.
Brandnames and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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