The Spyware Problem
While access to the internet often costs money, access to
most online content is free. As with television and radio, content
providers' costs are offset mostly by advertising. Over the last several
years, however, there has been a trend toward sneakier and more invasive
internet advertising. Spyware is the logical extension of this.
Spyware includes tools used by advertisers to access
your personal information for the purpose of targeting you with more effective
advertising. It also includes the programs that deliver these ads, often
at the expense of your convenience, privacy, and system performance. If
you get multiple popup ads any time you change sites on Internet Explorer (or
Netscape), or if you get pop-ups at websites that shouldn't have them, for
example Trinity's own internal web sites, then you've been infested with
Spyware.
Most spyware operates within legal boundaries, which
means it has to adhere to certain guidelines. One of these is that
spyware programs must ask your permission to install themselves. They do
this by looking legitimate, or by sneaking in with other programs.
Gator, the most ubiquitous spyware program, simply asks you if you would like
to install it, hoping you won't ask too many questions. Other spyware
comes bundled with popular free programs, such as Snood or Kazaa. If you
have Snood, you've got about a 70% chance of having been infested. If
you have Kazaa, that number is closer to 100.
Once you've approved the first program, more are likely
to follow. Included in the license agreements that you agree to when
these programs install is the right to do pretty much anything to your
machine, including legally installing new spyware without permission.
The rise of invasive and annoying advertising has
spawned an industry dedicated to fighting it. There are several free and
effective programs available for download which clean spyware. When used
in conjunction, the following two free programs will eliminate most spyware infestations.
Ad-aware by
Lavasoft (Click the Download button in the column at right)
A Beginner's Guide to
Ad-aware
Spybot
by PepiMK Softward (Download button is in column at left)
A Beginner's Guide to Spybot
For particularly virulent infestations, the Computing
Center owns a copy of the industry-standard Pest Patrol, which can be
installed and used (but then must be uninstalled) by a consultant at the Help
Desk. Please call (x2007) to make an appointment.
Macintosh computers remain a small, albeit flourishing,
niche market, and thus the incentive for mass targeted advertising is
significantly less: the energy an advertiser must expend to target Macintoshes
is usually not worth the small number of returns it will generate. With
such a small spyware threat, there is no drive to develop anti-spyware tools
for the Macintosh, or, to our knowledge, a need for it.
For more
information:
You can contact the Help
Desk by visiting the desk on B level of the LITC, or calling x2100
(faculty and staff) or x2007 (students).
Return to Help Guides Index
Last Modified:
09/07/2004 | 
