Spyware (again)

Spyware is my pet peeve du jour. And it's not just any old pet peeve, lemmetellya. Spyware really ticks me off. I've been battling spyware since my PC's infestation last month. I've spent untold hours at this. Spyware has cost me a considerable amount of time in lost productivity. Our legislators need to get on the stick and realize that spyware has delivered a serious blow to our economy as it lowers our quality of (online) life.

There are some that might equate spyware with terrorism. While I wouldn't go quite that far, I would certainly equate it with theft. Spyware steals our time, as it steals space and processing power from our computers. And it clearly infringes upon our privacy. Quite simply, spyware is the electronic equivalent of breaking and entering ... it is criminal trespassing at the very least.

If you follow my daily Lockergnome column, you'll recall that my computer became infested the day after I wrote my first piece on spyware. I wrote a followup column on that heinous experience with spyware. It took a good bit of time to get things under control. My third article on spyware explains the methods I've used to combat these nasty unwanted parasites.

The most persistant apps on my PC reported as Adware by Webroot Spy Sweeper include Apropos, Keyhost Hijacker, Roings Search Enhancment, SaveNow - WhenUSave, UrlBlaze, PurityScan, MemoryWatcher, KeenValue, Ezula iLookup, eXactSearchbar, Delfin, and CPR. All-in-all, Spy Sweeper found 35 pieces of software with 98 traces in my latest run (which took well over an hour, thank you).

Where did all of this junk come from?

I can't imagine that anyone here at ranchero indebto clicked "Okay" thirty-five times ... as if to say "Yes, please, mess up my computer!"

Pffffffffft ... gimmeabreak.

The spyware companies need to be reigned in. And we should start at the obvious place: those merchants and corporations that fund the operations of the spyware operators. Follow the money and you'll find lots of big companies that line the pockets of those who crawl along on the seamy underbelly of the Internet. The companies that fund the spyware operators need to realize that what they are doing is wrong.