Chapter 21. Avoiding Spyware
As you learned in Chapter 19, “Computer Viruses and Spyware: How Big a Problem,” spyware is malicious software that installs itself on your computer system without your approval, and then sends your personal data back to some sort of central service. Adware is a special type of spyware that uses this collected data to serve up advertisements based on the personal data it spied on.
Although spyware is a lot like a computer virus, in that it invades your computer without invitation or approval, it’s different enough not to be recognized by many anti-virus programs. To guard your system against spyware, then, you need to take discrete action in addition to what you do to avoid computer viruses. Spyware stands alone.
How ...
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