Remove adware or 'spyware' features from your PC without pain

By Vishnu K. Mahmud

JAKARTA (JP): There seems to be a new trend in computer software.

In the old days (pre-1999), you could download software in the form of "shareware". Thus, if the end user was happy with the program, they could then send money directly to the programmer to purchase or activate the full version of the application.

This method used the honor system. Unfortunately, not everyone would pay for using freely downloaded software.

Today, there is "adware" software, which pays for itself in the form of online advertising that is fused into the program. The user can download and use the application for free after answering a few demographic questions (or registering) and viewing ads in a special window.

The software-maker gets revenue from the amount of ads that are displayed in the software as well as "click throughs", which are the number of times a user clicks on an ad.

Popular download manager GoZilla (http://www.gozilla.com) and file-sharing software iMesh (http://www.imesh.com) are some examples of Internet applications that use adware. Both programs are required to be connected to the Internet to work, which can in turn also download ads.

However, some privacy advocates have reservations. This new crop of adware sometimes does not tell the user precisely what it is doing to their computers. They charge that these "spyware" applications could monitor user surfing habits in order to send targeted ads.

Considering that it utilizes the user's Internet connection without their knowledge has some activists up in arms.

The application could log all the Internet sites that the user has gone to (say CNN or the BBC) and report to a centralized database that could then put up a special ad offering a news magazine at a special price.

Worse, they could put your name on a mailing list that could then be sold to news publishers.

In some cases, spyware can also be installed into your computer via harmless looking web browser plug-ins. Comet Cursor (http://www.cometcursor.com), a small application that supplies colorful and fun cursor graphics, uses adware as well.

It is a small download and can be installed almost immediately.

But that's no problem, right? If you don't like the program, you can always uninstall the program and the adware/spyware problem will go away, right?

Wrong.

Even after uninstalling the main core application, the spyware logging features can still churn quietly in the background, acting like a Trojan horse program. So how do you get rid of a program that was downloaded in secret, difficult to detect and almost impossible to remove?

Enter Ad-Aware by Lavasoft (http://www.lavasoft.com). Ad-Aware is an easy to use program that will find and remove adware/spyware programs safely from your system.

It will scan the computer's memory, Windows registry and hard disk for known applications similar to an anti-virus program. Like it's virus scanner cousin, Ad-Aware is constantly updated.

But be forewarned. Removing the adware or spyware features from your system may cause the core application to crash or cease functioning.

You can also use RegClean, or Registry Cleaner by Microsoft to clean the Windows Registry (a main component of Microsoft's Operating System) from system calls to programs that have been removed long ago. Essentially, it tunes up your PC. You can download this from www.download.com.

Shouldn't these software companies have a revenue stream to recoup their investment?

After all, adware only came about since shareware was considered a failure. Can't advertising help build up the Internet as it had done for radio and television in the form of ratings and sponsorship dollars?

Perhaps. It is, however, important for users to know just what kind of information (if any) is compiled on them. The Internet is an interactive medium so advertisers can find out if you like Crest or Colgate via carefully crafted ads or your Internet logs.

Users should read the privacy policies and terms of service of each software/website carefully to find out how much information is collected and for what.

If advertisers can find out small things about people, think about what other sinister organizations could do, armed with the knowledge of a person's web-browsing habits. The Internet can be the best source of information for users, a medium for people to unite and learn together; a quick snapshot of the world. It can also be a microscope into your own home.

The writer is an IT consultant based in Jakarta. Questions? Contact Vishnu at sundaypost@thejakartapost.com.