It goes by other names – malware, adware, rogueware, or hijackers -- to differentiate types of their garbage. But these distinctions are typically made by providers of spyware to sound less nasty and help them justify their existence. Spyware is spyware, just as a crime is a crime. It is unwanted, it is ill-intended and it interferes with computer use.
It’s a huge problem. I know. I see it often in readers’ e-mail. I talk to a lot of friends at church and on the bus that have it. And our support team at Alliance has had pitched battles against it. It has become the #1 support issue that computer manufacturers are dealing with on their hotlines. And it’s global. My two favorite killers are from Germany and Sweden.
Two Ugly Trends
For all the warnings about the vileness of spyware, some people have complacently accepted it or let it work to their advantage.
First, people are opting to keep spyware because of the things it does that seem OK, or because of the other software tied to it. In a recent Wired News report, Michelle Delio cites the acceptance of spyware by users that simply want to use a popular program. IMesh, a program that lets users share files with others, includes a piece of software called Marketscore. It turns out that Marketscore watches where users browse by directing all Web traffic through its own servers. All the information about browsing, including passwords, is available to Marketscore. And users simply put up with it.
In a number of other reports, sales of new computers are being blamed on spyware. Spyware often cripples either Internet access or the general performance of a PC. It chews up Internet bandwidth, it crushes processors and it drags down memory. Unlike the cigarette ad of yore said, some people would rather switch than fight. Instead of cleaning up the mess that spyware creates and exercising an ounce of prevention, some poor saps are chucking a whole machine and replacing it with a new one.
While the kids may appreciate a speedier box (wait, are they the ones loading spyware on the machine in the first place?), I see three big issues here.
First, that new machine is just as likely to get slow. Think about it, if the first machine wasn’t cared for, why would a new machine be any different?
Second, people are getting rid of perfectly good PCs, in many cases. Sure, old computers can and should be retired or re-purposed. But newer PCs are being trashed because users don’t take the time to clean up spyware.
Third, both accepting spyware and refusing to fight it helps the cause of those who dump this stuff on the rest of us. The complacency means the bad guys win. Don’t let ’em.
Fighting It
I’d be remiss if I didn’t reiterate a little help in the spyware fight. Get at least two real spyware fighters. My personal favorites are Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware and Peter Kolla’s Spybot S&D (www.lavasoftusa.com and www.safer-networking.org respectively). You should also have a pop-up blocker on your Web browser. Internet Explorer in Windows XP Service Pack 2 does it automatically. If you don’t have Windows XP SP2, you can get good blockers from Google (http://toolbar.google.com/) or Yahoo! (http://toolbar.yahoo.com/).
If an “error” pops up when you’re on the Internet, do not click on the “OK” or anywhere on the message. Use the Windows X in the upper right corner to close the message. Fake error messages are used to dupe unsuspecting users into installing spyware.
A New Year for Users
I have one request for the New Year. Can PC makers and software writers and computer folks focus on us, the users? I dare these folks to make their products easier to use and easier to understand. Any takers?
