Thursday, March 10, 2005

How Do You Define Spyware?

In last week's e-column, I wrote about my brush with a guy who had, perhaps unwittingly, signed up for a marketing program that worked by distributing spyware. I took it for granted that most readers know what spyware is, but messages like this one quickly alerted me that there's a good bit of confusion over spyware's definition.

"I confess that [your column] 'Spyware in the Caribbean' confused me. I thought spyware was software that spies."

I wrote back that I think of spyware as software that gets installed on your Windows computer without your knowledge, usually by piggybacking on some piece of downloaded software you DO want. Once installed, the software commandeers some aspect of your PC, either by inserting ads into your browser or desktop, changing your browser startup page or SOMETIMES sending secret reports about your PC or your activity back to the original "advertiser."

I also suggested that that reader check out the cover story of this month's PC World magazine, "Spyware Stoppers."

But he was still confused by the definitions. "The article says that for its purposes, it'll apply the 'spyware' label to any program that installs itself without permission. Seems rather broad.

"On the other hand, the [PC World] article about the free Ad-Aware SE v1.05 says: 'As many of us know, spyware refers to small, hidden programs that are embedded in larger applications to report information to advertisers.'"

I was going to suggest that we adopt the term "adware" for unrequested software that exists to show you ads, and "spyware" for unrequested software that monitors your activity — but then there's PC World, defining adware as "legitimate but annoying programs that users consent (perhaps unwittingly) to have installed on their PCs." If you consent, it's obviously not secret.

Another reader responded: "Interestingly, the 'Spyware Stoppers' article modifies its own definition of spyware in the glossary at the end, adding the key idea that spyware is something that monitors and reports on your activities: 'Software that is surreptitiously installed on the user's system to monitor the user's Internet activities and that often displays advertising based on that monitoring.'

"Even this definition focuses on monitoring Internet usage, leaving out such things as keystroke monitors, surely a most important form of spyware."

He concluded, "Part of the problem is that the phenomena we're trying to talk about (and deal with) keep changing faster than we can reach consensus on how to refer to them. There seem to be almost as many ways to define 'spyware' and 'adware' as there are people writing about them." An excellent point.

Whatever you want to call it, the main thing is that Windows PC owners (no spyware runs on Mac OS X) must now be on the alert for yet another plague of nastiness: programs that, as PC World puts it, "drain your computer's resources, slow your Internet connection, spy on your surfing, and even forcibly redirect your Web browser."

Maybe we should just call it exasperationware.

fjk's

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