Adware is a software application that displays unwanted banner ads or pop-up windows with ads. The justification for adware is that it helps recover programming development cost and helps to hold down the cost for the user. Consumers get a helpful piece of software for free because of the sponsors. But in many instances adware can be a form of spyware that collects information about the user and passes it on to third parties, without the user’s authorization or knowledge. Silent background use of an Internet back channel connection must be preceded by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed back channel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed consent for such use. Any software communicating across the Internet absent of these elements is guilty of information theft and is properly and rightfully termed as spyware.
HOW TO REMOVE ADWARE
Most suspicious spyware installs itself into internet explorer. Internet explorer is the default browser in your Windows OS and is generally the most unsafe browser out here. I highly recommend installing the Mozilla Firefox browser which contains no back doors and will cause you not trouble with annoying adware, unlike internet explorer. In addition Firefox is faster and the features and user experience is way better. Mozilla Firefox is a Google product and is free.
Getting rid of Adware programs should be as easy as going to Add/Remove Programs and simply removing the offending program. Unfortunately, it usually takes something more to remove the bad adware. This is why Adware removal software exists. A very good anti adware, Spybot S&D, is available as a free download. Once you have installed the anti adware you need to run a scan on your computer. Some anti adware also have spyware components which can scan your computer for unwanted adware software.
LOCALISABLE DATA
This is where your computer can be vulnerable, if you have compromised your computer by installing a bad application. This can potentially expose your local machine (i.e. your computer on a network) to malware or other potential harm.
Fortunately not many people are infected by this kind of malicious software. Most of the time it is much harder for you to be infected. Even assuming you have, if you go to a bad website (porn site for example) and try to search for anything lewd or nasty you will notice that nothing controversial shows up. The keywords that much pornographic sites like to include in their searches are going to raise some red flags for you. If you are going to a porn site you may well have to not only be aware of the adult content but you’ll want to avoid the site altogether. If possible you don’t want to use a computer at home for that kind of thing.
It’s a bit of a hassle sometimes but you can use some of the software to keep you computer safe. If you’re using Windows you can get a free Windows firewall and try that. If you don’t have a Windows account you’ll have to download and install third party software such as ZoneAlarm or Web Console. If you don’t know what either of these are, Google them and Google will give you some info. Once you’re done installing the software, you’ll want to reboot your computer and run your first scan. When you’re finished, you’ll need to delete all the junk files that pop up. These are files that are created when someone tries to run a malware program. When you run a search on a bad website (porn, in this case) that contains inappropriate keywords, you’ll want to go through your machine and delete all the.exe and.bat files that start when the browser is started.
