Spyware really that bad?

[Telexen]

A little over two years ago I jumped onto the [small] bandwagon of thinking spyware was the worst thing that could happen to us computer users. This was several months before the complete craze and EVERYONE seemed to know what Ad-aware was.

I ditched the spyware scanning bit a year ago because I didn't really care for scanning my system for that crap constantly (much like I feel about virus scanning). Just a few days ago though I figured I may as well download the newest Ad-aware and take a look at what I'm 'infected' with.

I've run Ad-aware on multiple installations now, over several days. Only ONE entry was found, excluding cookies...it happened to come from WMP.

So my question is, should we really be worrying about spyware? I don't install Kazaa, I don't install the dumb little applications larger ones advise me to do when I install those...why do I really need to waste my time/cpu cycles to delete cookies?

Does anyone have any insight on why Spyware scanning is necessary?

[ShawnD1]

Most spyware scanning is done after installing a program which you could deem as "questionable" such as Audio Galaxy or Kazaa. The average person doesn't scan for spyware on a regular basis like with anti-virus software.

[OuTpaTienT]

You obviously have good practices that help keep your system clean. Same here. I don't fiddle with having anti-virus software running all the time because I don't need it.

But, I know people that just seem to be magnets for spyware. I can check out a friends computer and clean it up for them and then check it again in a week or less, and it'll look like I never touched it. I'm talking pages of spyware stuff.

Now I might expect as much from my pervert friends who I suspect are surfing porn sites. (Actually I know that because I can see where some of the cookies are from. ) But "moms" and "grandmas" and other less perverted-types seem to get hit just as bad, just from other types of sites and apps.

So in regards to your question, I'd have to say yes & no. Spyware isn't all that bad to most of us here at TIMO because for the most part we have some idea what we're doing. But for the general computer user out there, YES spyware is very bad and needs to be controlled.

[cbuddha42]

i agree with outpatient - if you generally understand computers and dont just do whatever a website tells you to do/install programs with reviews saying stuff like "screwed up my hard disk!!" then your probably fine but for the comp illiterate majority who blindly click yesl when promted to install gator for the 11 billionth time and kids to whom mp3s are a total mystery accept for knowing how to download some using kazaa becuase its cheeper than buying a cd

[vass0922]

Yes it is bad out there. We had a slew of users using HOTBAR around here at work.. which is pretty spyware

Its like a rash, EASY to get.. difficult to get rid of :-/
Its SO easy in Internet Exploder to pull up spyware without even thinking about it because of its MAJOR lack of security regarding ActiveX controls. "Just click here to close this window!" and you're off to popup spam land where you're just pushing buttons to close them all and WHAM ... whoops shouldnt' of pressed that button

Unfortunately spyware developers aren't stupid

[cbuddha42]

hehe yea when i hit popup land (normally due to a poorly typed url) i usually use alt-f4 to avoid problems with all those resizing and fake close button tatics

[draboo]

i use adware6 and spybot search and destroy. after i used those two and my system was clean,i installed a prog called spywareblaster. i used it to take a snapshot of my system,kinda lite a restore point in xp pro. then every week or so,i hit the restore,and if there are any changes,it shows what they are.if i want to keep the changes or not is an option.its much easier and faster than going thru the scans all over again.

[SiliconJon]

I don't mind it as long as it is installed with my permission (i.e. DivX Pro Free). But as far as it being installed on most occasion, I believe it's done so without the user clearly understanding so. In this case, I believe it to be much like a virus, and should be equally illegal. But they get away with it being legal by putting a notice in their 10-page EULA's that even many skilled users don't always fully read, none-the-less a user who is just familiar with clicking.