When you first get your computer everything seems to work so well. But one day something happen that take you by surprise. You type in a certain topic on a search engine and for the first time you get directed to a strange page that is not related to your topic. Funny, when you typed those same words in before you always got exactly what you were looking for but not this time. What happened?
Maybe it was just a glitch in the internet or maybe the search engine is experiencing problems. Try and try again the problem still seems like it will not go away. Then you think that a bug or virus must have gotten in to your computer. Since you only use your computer for research and writing your papers you wonder how that is possible. since this is the first time you ever had a computer of your own you are not sure how to correct the problem. But rest assured that you are not alone withe this problem.
The situation you are facing is not isolated to you. These are several people who are dealing with the same thing that you are. Your problem can be summed up in two words, adware and spyware. The term spyware was first coined in 1995 but made popular in 2000. Spyware is software that gets in to your your computer to gain information on how you use you computer.
The software will study your logging keystrokes, web browsing history and will laso scan you hard drive. Sounds scary that something is keeping track of your activities. This should only happen to criminals not the average person. Spyware can even gather credit card details and more. In this day and age there is no excuse for the use of spyware on everybody.
Now the average person does have options to protect themselves against software like spyware and other programs like adware and malware. You can go online and get blockers programs that you can download to your computer. These programs will remove or diable existing spyware and keep unwanted software from installing on your computer.
Spyware and other software are not like any virus or worm that self replicate but they can be problem none the less. The biggest problems with these types of infectious software is that fact that they can slow your computer down. This is a real problem because everbody wants their computer to work as fast as possible. Nobody wants their activities interupted while you are on the web.
Depending on most cases spyware in not even considered wrong so it's allowed to get away with its crime. Since it doesn't always look for sensitive information spyware can be used. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to take preventive measures to make sure this doesn't occur to you.
