WATCH OUT! SPYWARE ON YOUR COMPUTER!

In this Internet-driven era, the Net users are continually bombarded with a lot of technical vocabulary – spyware, adware, malware, spamming, phishing and phreaking to name a few. In addition, new terms are coined virtually each passing day that may confuse even a techie.

Of course, if you are a casual user of the Internet as I am, you do not need to know what all these jargon mean. But you must be familiar with a few of such terms; not just for knowledge but for safety online.

To begin with, let us see what a spyware is. It is computer program that helps someone to gather some information about a person or organization without their knowledge. The concept will be clearer if we take an example. Probably you have downloaded many kinds of software from the Internet free of cost. While installing some of them step by step, you might have checked many boxes such as ‘I agree with the terms & conditions’, ‘send me newsletters occasionally’, ‘also download a free toolbar’ etc.

If you have ever downloaded a toolbar (knowingly or unknowingly) while downloading particular software, you are probably welcoming an uninvited guest – a spyware. The downloaded toolbar which is a spyware, always appears at the top of your Internet browser. It acts like a CC camera in a building – monitoring whatever you do! Spyware can also make their way into your computer when you download free music, movies, TV shows and so forth.

A spyware closely but in a friendly way observes what types of websites you frequently visit, what pictures or videos you often watch, what kind of information you usually share with others online, who you send the highest number of emails and so on. Then the spyware sends a detailed report about your online activities to the developers of the program. Those findings are then sold to a third party who may annoy you with pop-ups, unsolicited emails etc. Some of the more serious types of spyware are even capable of recording your credit card or bank information.