Spyware is generally known as something really terrible. Whenever someone mentions it, you shudder, hoping that your computer isn’t infected with the illusive spyware everyone always talks about. Spyware is usually something that advertises ads on your computer; generally the ads come up randomly and frequently.

Spyware can also be in the form of information collecting. This means that when the spyware is planted into your computer, it collects information about your surfing habits, the programs you use, even what you type. It can be scary thinking that something could be in your computer, recording all of this and sending it to someone you don’t even know.

Companies that make spyware usually don’t care about anyone else other than themselves. They use the spyware to exploit advertising networks. There are many advertising networks that pay people to show their ads, a spyware engineer could make a certain spyware to show that networks ads, generating quite a lot of money.

On the other side, the anti-spyware companies sometimes do surveys to see how the market is doing. One highly recognized company finished their survey with some astounding numbers, out of every 10 personal computers, 9 were infected with spyware.

Most spyware tends to be installed without the user’s knowledge. “Joe” user could be thinking he is going to download the latest version of Kazaa and little does he know it is piggybacked with a highly infectious spyware. Most software will present a very useful purpose, to “Accelerate your internet speed” or to “increase download speed” but in reality, all they do is pretend to change settings, and then infect you with spyware.

Generally speaking, spyware will cause your computer to slow down quite a bit. It does this because there is an extra process running in the background, the spyware. The reason they take up so much system resources is because they are usually poorly programmed and aren’t efficient, they are hastily made and hog your PC of performance!