What is Spyware

Spyware can be considered as a type of unwanted program that is usually secretly installed on one's computer and who's purpose is to collect information about user activity including webpages browsed, emails sent, instant messages, even word or excel documents, you name it. After collecting information, it then sends it to either the spyware developer, or whoever it was programmed to send it to who has an interest in your computer activity.

This type of information can be very valuable to advertisers for example to learn from user experience and habit and modify / optimise their efforts. It could also be done intentionally by an employer as another example to monitor their employees and make sure everyone is actuallly doing their job.

The most common place to catch spyware is through free downloads such as freeware or shareware where they can sometimes be bundled within the installation package. When you would install the original program, the spyware would also install without you knowing it and perform its tasks. I don't want to worry everyone out there about freeware or shareware as they do not all have this type of virus attached, but it is one of the most common places to catch one.

Besides having the capability in some cases to steal very private information, even the more harmless types of spyware can be really annoying as they run in the back and collect information. In doing so, they are using some of your computer's resources. Eventually, you could see a decrease in performances, even computer crashes if you are infected with these types of unwanted programs.

The best way to stay protected is having a reliable antivirus installed. We compare the top antivirus software and every one we review has a spyware feature as this is one of the most common (and annoying) types of computer threats around.

If you are looking for an antivirus software, we suggest visiting our homepage for ratings and access to complete reviews on only the top antivirus software around.