by Trevor Zion Bauknight

I'll say this up front: I've been a Macintosh guy since college. Recently, however, I've been obliged to begin to learn the inner workings of Microsoft's Windows NT-based operating systems, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. In the process, one of the things with which I've come face to face is the vast body of knowledge one needs to maintain in order to keep up with the onslaught of nefarious devices marketing types have devised to target their campaigns.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad it's targeted, at least; I shudder to think what kinds of spam I'd be getting if it weren't. I just don't think I want little programs embedded into my RAM studying what I do, what I buy, what websites I visit, etc. Spyware has, as evidenced by the sheer amount of work the programs I have installed to deal with it have to do, gotten out of hand.

This all started years ago with the advent of so-called "cookies", little bits of information that some websites began instructing willing browsers to store in order to track visits to those websites. Cookies were celebrated and reviled in their day...these days, they're practically required if you use the 'Net for anything official and useful even if you don't. By today's standards, dealing with cookies is a comparatively minor annoyance when it's an annoyance at all. Spyware-management programs still highlight them as potentially problematic (and some of them are); but, in general, you're safe leaving them alone.

Today's spyware goes much further than cookies ever went, however. You might find yourself staring at unwanted pop-up ads on a regular schedule once a piece of adware gets lodged somewhere on your hard drive. Some of them add advertising links to web pages and redirect payments from affiliate programs to the makers of the software. Others hijack your browser's home page and/or hide from you so you can't uninstall or remove it without a good deal of difficulty (or a good piece of anti-spyware software -- but we'll get to that in a moment). The worst of these programs cause your computer's modem to dial expensive phone numbers or create security holes that allow strangers access to your files and other computer resources.

Fortunately, there are ways to deal with this problem. Two free pieces of software, AdAware from LavaSoft and SpyBot Search & Destroy from Patrick Kolla. They're not particularly easy to learn to use expertly, but the default behavior is generally very effective and tends to err on the side of caution. Most people run both of these programs in tandem, just to be safe, and they're both free and constantly updated to deal with the latest threats.

The programs will scan your computer's hard drive looking for spyware, and when it finds it, they will highlight the findings, give you an explanation of what was found and its potential severity and then offer you a choice of how to handle the problem. Usually, the default behavior is acceptable; but you probably want to take time to sit down on a quiet evening and learn the ropes of the programs as well as you can. This will help you become more aware of the problem and will help you make better use of your time online while steering clear of troublemaking websites and companies that use such technology.

The Center for Democracy and Technology has an excellent resource dealing with the legalities of spyware and efforts to institute controls over this problem before it becomes worse. Check out their website. You can check out the CafeID Resources page for links where you can download AdAware and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

About the Author

Trevor Zion Bauknight is a web designer and writer with over 15 years of experience on the Internet. He works with Cafe ID and specializes in the creation and maintenance of business and personal Online Identity and can be reached at trevor@cafeid.com.