[DM-MUG] What is Spyware?

[Doug & Joni Tonnemacher]

Not sure if I ever heard of spyware being installed on a mac.  Mac OS X 
requires a password when anything is installed onto the system.  That 
fact alone shows how superior the Mac OS is to Windows.

My understanding is Spyware is software that is installed onto your 
system and then "spies" on you and the web pages you visit.  It then 
reports it back somewhere.  It installs and operates all in the 
background.  Most of the time, users are not aware that is it running 
nor installed.

My suggestions is to activate your firewall in your system preferences.

If anybody else can contribute to this, please do.  If my understanding 
of spyware is not accurate, please let me know.

Doug
On Jul 24, 2004, at 2:35 PM, Bill Smith wrote:

> I just closed DMRegister site, and a pop-up screen appeared on my 
> desktop with: "Warning, we have detected your PC is infected with 
> Spyware . . ." Message goes on to describe Spyware briefly and then 
> offers a free download of a scanner to detect if your PC has been 
> infected. My iMac has the .Mac  antivirus software installed, but not 
> any of the other .Mac features. I did not accept the offer to download 
> the free Spyware scanner. Has anyone else received this pop-up screen 
> when exiting a web site, and is it legitimate or not? Thanks. -- Smith
>
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