Cool Cursors!!!!!! SO COOL!

[slleipnir]

I don't know if its neccessarily bad..It just means that ppl can watch what your doing type thing..like they know which websites you go to. It can also be as bad as they know everything thats on your comp like software etc.


If you want more info, I found this site.

http://www.onlinepcfix.com/spyware/spyware.htm

basically it says:
"Spyware is unsolicited software that installs without the user's explicit consent, the purpose of which is to traces the user's usage of the internet and sends this information - again without the user knowing this is happening - to a computer ("Server") designated by the developer of the Spyware software. In most cases, this information - including detailed user profiling - is then used to 'tailor' advertising campaigns (popup ads and email advertisements) to target the user with. There are a few Spyware programs that collect user information for yet unknown / undisclosed purposes.

The spyware problem has grown to epidemic proportions recently, with many millions of computers affected. This is some of what Spyware can do:

· Bombard you with unwanted advertising

· Track your site visits and report them back to their controlling servers

· Add banners and links to web pages which slows down page loading times (hence your connection seems slower when it really isn't)

· Degrade system performance and cause errors due to hastily written programs

· Slow down connection speeds since the programs are constantly communicating with their controlling servers

· Open unsecured ports on the infected system hence allowing the makers of the software — or, in particularly bad cases, anyone at all — to download and run software from and to the infected PC

· Change (hijack) browser home page and search settings to point to the makers’ sites (generally loaded with advertising), and prevent you changing it back

· Add their own toolbars with links to their affiliates (for advertising revenue purposes)"

I feel its worse for the fact that a lot of ppl want complete privacy and with this they feel they don't.

Hope that helps you understand more (And they don't litterally watch you btw hehe)

[dukedogsmom]

EMS Free Surfer mk II is a good pop up add stopper. It's a free download. I can't remember where I got it but I just went to google.com and did a search for it. It's safe because I learned about it on tech tv. www.techtv.com You might even be able to find it there. Spyware can even find your name, credit cards used online, etc. It's bad and should be illegal but I don't think it is.