Spyware
Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually to serve advertising purposes with pop-up ads based on your web surfing habits. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet and may or may not install in stealth. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware usually slows down your computer as it uses up memory and computer processes.

Adware
While not necessarily malware, adware is considered to go beyond the reasonable advertising that one might expect from freeware or shareware. Typically a separate program that is installed at the same time as a shareware or similar program, adware will usually continues to generate advertising even when the user is not running the originally desired program. Adware can do a number of different things to your system. It can monitor and profile your web usage and direct pop up ads based on your surfing habits. Most peer-to-peer file sharing programs come with or are bundled with Adware and the user is only notified of this in the fine print of the End User License Agreement. Adware is not as dangerous as other infections, but it can be incredibly annoying.

Malware
These are malicious software designed to do harm to a user's system or to other systems that is not specifically a VIRUS.

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