Fighting Against Spyware & Malware
Spyware is software that enables a third-party to track where you go on the Internet. Usually this does NOT involve specific tracking cookies and companies that specialize in tracking your visits to advertiser sites. Spyware is usually software installed on your computer that monitors what you do and reports it — not cookies that are used by web sites.
But, the possibility of abuse has given cookies a bad name, but cookies are not inherently evil — they are used for many good purposes such as automatically logging you into sites like My Yahoo! and the New York Times.
Most sites use cookies for internal purposes as you go from page to page. Cookies got a bad rap as spyware tools because some big companies like DoubleClick.net wanted to use cookies to track user activity and then tie it to other databases to identify individual users. They never did, but that started the cookie avalanche — now every antivirus and antispyware company includes the ability to delete cookies.
Adware is software that generates ads, especially popup ads, to interfere with your computing and Internet surfing experience.
As most people use the term “adware,” and I agree with them, “adware” does not include software that displays unobtrusive ads with your conscious agreement (not buried deep in a license agreement or installed without your agreement) as a way to provide free software for you.
Read more in my two-part article Fighting Against Spyware & Malware