What do you call the ability of spywares to monitor what you are currently doing and typing?

Spyware and User Privacy

Not all data collection programs are spyware, as long as the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared. Tracking and reporting user information can help legitimate software vendors to improve their products or better support customers. For this reason, marketing firms often object to having their services called "spyware." The line between illegal spyware and legitimate data collection is often drawn at cookies, a well-known method of storing information about internet behavior on individuals' devices. Some users allow cookies; others abhor them.

Divergent attitudes about the definitions of spyware make it an integral concern of privacy experts, who question and debate its merit. Spyware is virtually unregulated. These programs seldom if ever include a mechanism for the user to oversee and approve what information is being gathered and how it is shared, even if the usage is lawful. Add to this the fact that spyware devours computing resources like bandwidth, processing power and memory without any control. It’s easy to see why security experts seek to prevent and defend against spyware.

Tips to Prevent Spyware

Use an anti-spyware scanner. There are many anti-spyware programs available that will scan your computer to detect malicious tracking software. Removing spyware from a computer or device can be tricky, but it can always be quarantined to no longer function. Most packages provide ongoing anti-spyware protection against the real-time installation of new spyware by scanning incoming traffic and blocking any potential threats. Like any anti-virus program, anti-spyware tools must be updated regularly to remain fully effective.

Adjust browser security settings. Most browsers allow you to adjust their security levels along a scale from “high” to “low.” Get to know these options, as some browsers can function like a firewall against unwanted operations, even cookie installation if so desired.

Be very wary of pop-ups. Ads and offers displayed in pop-up windows, especially those that appear unexpectedly, often mask deceptive purposes. Some pretend a virus infection has been discovered on your computer or offer a plug-in that purports to improve your browsing experience. Never click "agree" or "OK" to close a window; instead click the red "x" in the corner of the window to close. Practice skeptical computing – assume that any new program is potentially harmful until proven safe. Answering “yes” to a prompt that you don't understand can allow spyware to be loaded.

Understand that “free" is never “free.” In most cases with free apps, you implicitly agree to trade tracking for services. You “pay” for the app by agreeing to receive targeted ads. You can decide that this is a fair trade off, but most companies need to track your online activities to determine which ads to show you.

Always read terms & conditions. Legitimate software vendors will disclose information about how they collect and employ user information in their terms and conditions. Most users don’t even bother to read them. If you are particularly adamant about protecting your online privacy, it’s best to know exactly what you are signing up for. If privacy policies are abused or changed without user knowledge, a software vendor can seriously violate user trust no matter its original intent.

Additional Privacy Tips

Macro Virus: These type of virus infects word, excel, PowerPoint, access and other data files. Once infected repairing of these files is very much difficult.

Master boot record files: MBR viruses are memory-resident viruses and copy itself to the first sector of a storage device which is used for partition tables or OS loading programs .A MBR virus will infect this particular area of Storage device instead of normal files. The easiest way to remove a MBR virus is to clean the MBR area,

Boot sector virus: Boot sector virus infects the boot sector of a HDD or FDD. These are also memory resident in nature. As soon as the computer starts it gets infected from the boot sector.  Cleaning this type of virus is very difficult.

Multipartite virus: A hybrid of Boot and Program/file viruses. They infect program files and when the infected program is executed, these viruses infect the boot record. When you boot the computer next time the virus from the boot record loads in memory and then start infecting other program files on disk

Polymorphic viruses: A virus that can encrypt its code in different ways so that it appears differently in each infection. These viruses are more difficult to detect.

Stealth viruses: These types of viruses use different kind of techniques to avoid detection. They either redirect the disk head to read another sector instead of the one in which they reside or they may alter the reading of the infected file’s size shown in the directory listing. For example, the Whale virus adds 9216 bytes to an infected file; then the virus subtracts the same number of bytes (9216) from the size given in the directory.

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