Spies: Not James Bond

There are spies out there who are used for bad....

Have you ever heard of spyware? Chances are, if you (or your mom or dad or sister or brother or whatever) aren't a "computer buff", then you haven't. Well, my dad and I are "computer buffs", and we know a lot about spyware. Well, enough to write one article about them. :-)

You know those annoying pop-up ads that appear when you go to some sites? Well, those, and any other site, for that matter, are liable to be infested with spyware. Spyware comes in many forms, the most common of which are pop-up ads and something known as a "cookie".

Most spyware tracks down what sites you go to on your computer, and they sometimes can lead to viruses. Spyware installs programs onto your computer that spot which sites you go to a lot -- let's say you go to a lot of car sites. The pop-ups that appear on your computer will start to have more and more car-related things. Good for business... bad for computers.

The thing I mentioned earlier, a "cookie," can be either good or bad. As a matter of fact, Whyville itself uses cookies -- but good ones. (Okay, not the kind with chocolate chips, but pretty good anyway.) Most sites do this. These cookies are why when you go to your favorite Whyville hangout, the room (and your face!) loads faster than when you go somewhere you don't normally visit. A cookie remembers a particular site so that next time you go there it will load faster. I don't actually know what a bad cookie does, but they are part of what holds the spyware on your computer.

One way you can tell if your computer is loaded down with spyware is if it is running slower than usual, or if when you are online, a window frequently pops up saying that something has encountered an error and the computer will now shut down. You'll also get popups out of nowhere. (Sometimes they're even created by your DSL or cable internet or dialup company!) Both of those things happened to me on this computer, until my dad finally found a spyware-detector program and loaded it onto our computer.

If you suspect you have spyware on your computer, there are programs you can get to erase it. The one I have is called Webroot Spy Sweeper, and it works quite well. One drawback is that you have to pay for it, but there is a free 90-day trial you can download to try out. Once you run it, you might be surprised at just how many sneaky little spywares have crawled into your computer via the internet.