Originally posted by Meson It's a hidden program that logs everything you do, and sends this info to a third party often without your knowledge or consnet.
To speak in favour of spyware:
The well know ones just collect your surfing history and so your interest to clog you down with personalized ads (also in the form of SPAM mails).
I actually didn't hear of any programs that did actually spy passwords or introduce trojans.
Which I think is absolute bull. It angers me to hear of the various dirty tricks that are used such as this. I thought that spamming was illegal. It should be, that's for sure. Especially the sort where, I'm not sure if you've encountered them, but the ones that crash your computer if you get rid of their ads.
Kazza is particualrly bad with spyyware. They often use the gatherd data to look for people with high-valued Amazon.com associates accounts, and switch those acconts so that the checks go to them and not the true owner. Thet are also know to confiscate other revenue items off users' websites.