What's Spyware?????????

[Sam]

Is it when people track down what you're doing on the internet and can hack and gain access to your facebook, twitter, youtube, ebay and google accounts? Cause someone told me I have Spyware.. Can they also spy on you thorugh the webcam?

[Caleb]

Spyware is basically a malicious kinda software that people try to make download onto your computer kinda like a virus. They can basically spam your computer and take things from your computer. Click this link it is the Wikipedia for it. Link -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

[Keeton]

Yes, it's possible for that to happen. There's different kinds of spyware. Some gather more information than others.

[Amanda]

If you have them in your computer for a longer time, they definitely can spy your online activities. So you ought to remove them ASAP. I suggest you reboot the system in the Safe Mode & Networking by pressing F8 while the computer is loading. After you log in the Safe Mode, you need to employ a decent antivirus to scan the whole system and remove all suspicious programs immediately.

[DunbarPappy®ϟϟ]

"Spyware", (originally coined by Steve Gibson of GRC), referred to the behavior of cookies that 'phoned home' about where a browser had been. These were installed secretly, without 'informed consent', in order to track users for advertising purposes.
It has since become an all inclusive term to mean anything that reveals (to a 3rd party) anything you thought was 'private' and perhaps delicate by it's nature.

Since there is no single 'authority' that sets standards of definitions, interpretations of words mean different things to different people.
For instance, mildly invasive 'tracking cookies' are evil to some, but to marketing agencies they are completely fine.