Spyware is ANY SOFTWARE which employs your Internet connection in the background (the so-called "backchannel") without your knowledge or explicit permission. You're paying for your ISP connection. It is THEFT from YOU!! You've been ROBBED!
Silent background use of an Internet "backchannel" connection MUST BE PRECEDED by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed backchannel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed, consent for such use. ANY SOFTWARE communicating across the Internet absent these elements is guilty of information theft and is properly and rightfully termed: Spyware. Most users find that spyware slows down their systems as the backchannel is used to send your browsing habits to the spyware's server. I notice net-speed performance improvement every time I use AdAware.
If you surf the net and have ever downloaded freeware or software supported by embedded ads & cookies, chances are excellent you have spyware on your computer RIGHT NOW!!
Now you can totally ELIMINATE all spyware from your system quickly and best of all FREE !!
SpyBotS&D searches your hard disk for so-called spy- or adbots; little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs show. But many of these modules also transmit information about your surfing behaviour and more to the net. If SpyBotS&D finds such modules, it can remove them - or replace them with empty dummies in case their host won't work any more with its bot removed. In most cases, the host software still runs after removing the bot. For a list of 'supported' bots see the feature lists below. SpyBotS&D works with an easy interface that allows updates by just replacing a file of about 1k size.
Another feature of SpyBot S&D is the removal of usage tracks, which makes it more complicated for unknown spybots to transmit useful data. The list of last visited websites, opened files, started programs, cookies, all that and more can be cleaned. Supported are the three major browsers Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator and Opera.
Last but not least SpyBotS&D contains some routines to find and correct invalid entries into the registry.
Warning
Depending on the license agreement of some software that uses spy/adbots, the usage of the software itself is no longer allowed after removal. Please read those license agreements first!
And remember: update SpyBot S&D after installing to get the latest updates.
