I hate spyware, but then so do most people. What I hate more than spyware itself are the ultra-paranoid people that think that every ad-enabled software program is “spyware”. There are a lot of software packages out there that are both bundled with adware and spyware.

My opinion is: Adware just displays adverts while using the software package, Spyware sits in the background and does weird stuff you don’t even know about. Stuff like downloading extra programs and installing them automatically, taking over vital Windows functions, and popping up adverts at random intervals when you’re not even using the program it was bundled with. Also spyware is more likely not to be uninstalled when you remove the program that installed it.

A couple of examples:

FlashGet – a very useful file downloader.

It is shareware, and is ad-enabled. It is not spyware, it displays banner adverts IN the FlashGet window and nowhere else. If you register it, the banner disappears. This is frequently attacked as being “spyware”, which frankly is complete bollocks, it is Adware… and isn’t dangerous to your system at all.

Opera – a well known web browser.

It is also shareware, and contains banner adverts. Everyone knows Opera has adverts unless you don’t register it, but no one ever says Opera is “spyware”. Funny that.

MsgPlus! – an add-on for MSN Messenger.

Freeware. The installer itself contains a “Sponsor” component… which is TOTALLY OPTIONAL to install. The component is known as “LOP.com” and I would personally count it as spyware, as it can be very hard to remove once it’s installed. It sits in the background downloading extra components and displays adverts whenever it feels like it. In fact previous versions of LOP.com have even displayed virus like tendencies, renaming its executables and trying to hide throughout your system.

It’s definitely a nasty little bugger BUT, and it’s a big but, installing it is OPTIONAL. So it’s your own fault if you don’t bother to read the instructions properly (read my previous post to install MsgPlus! safely). A lot of people call MsgPlus! “spyware”, which again is bollocks. The installer itself contains spyware, which will NOT be installed if you don’t want it to be.

Screensavers from freeze.com, screensaver.com etc.

You might get the choice to install some of the bundled extras, but sometimes they install them whether you want them or not. They are all spyware. Never install one a “free” screensaver, it may just fuck up your system. One such component I’ve seen frequently installed by a screensaver is NewDotNet.

NewDotNet is a company that sells domain names with extra TLDs such as .shop .mp3 .travel and a few others. As they are not real TLDs recognised by ICANN, to be able to access them directly you need to install the NewDotNet software which intercepts your computer’s DNS lookup requests and points your browser in the right direction, otherwise you’d just get an error as the domain doesn’t really exist. In fact all you’re buying is yourdomain.extension.new.net so a domain like pie.shop is really pie.shop.new.net. I’m sure it sounded like a good idea, but in practice, it’s a waste of time and money. Plus the software can break Windows quite badly, especially if you don’t remove it PROPERLY.

So, think before you click and watch out for those nasty extras. Oh yes, and stay away from Internet Explorer