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What is Spyware?
Spyware is quite a general term that usually
refers to a piece of software that watches what
you do on your computer (not necessarily everything,
but some things) and then reports that information
back to someone.
The most common use for Spyware is in the advertisements
you often see in free software programs, such
as the Original Kazaa. For this reason, Spyware
is sometimes called Adware. These advertisement
systems keep track of what advertisements you
click on and send back statistics to their marketers.
This allows them to send you more advertisements
that (supposedly) interest you.
Some Spyware has the ability to gather information
that is more specific on you. Not necessarily
personally identifiable info (like your name and
address) but demographic information such as age
range, you gender and perhaps what country you
live in. This kind of information, when coupled
with data on what advertisement you are interested
in (and even, potentially, what you search for
using the Original Kazaa) is very useful to companies
as it provides them with information about peoples'
habits and interests, coupled with general information
about what kind of person they are.
Are women aged 18-25 interested in football merchandise?
Maybe, maybe not, maybe you don't care, but Spyware
can tell the people that do care. The people behind
Spyware sell the information they gather to marketing
companies and pass on some of the profit to the
software that contains the Spyware. This is how
programs like the Original Kazaa can remain free
to download and use.
The main concern about Spyware is that no one
can really know exactly what information it is
gathering about you. You have to take the maker's
word for it, and most people don't want to do
that. Any software running on your computer can
potentially know about anything you do. What web
sites you visit. What software you use. What you
search for on Google or Kazaa. It could even gather
personal information about you specifically, provided
you give it permission. But think about it: when
was the last time you read the licence agreement
you're about to agree to?
Kazaa Lite contains none of this, but be aware
that it will not uninstall Spyware that is already
on your system. See the question on removing Spyware
below.
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How
does Kazaa Lite get around Spyware?
It gets around it, quite simply, by not installing
it!
Both the Original Kazaa and Kazaa Lite (because
Kazaa Lite has to work exactly the same as the
Original Kazaa) actually check for CyDoor on your
machine and will not run without it. However,
Kazaa Lite gets around this by installing a dummy
version of CyDoor, which appears correct to Kazaa,
but does not serve the adverts, meaning they don't
appear in KL. It also stops random pop-ups from
appearing while you're using KL. This dummy version
of CyDoor is from a group called Counterexploitation
(CEXX).
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Will
Kazaa Lite remove any Spyware on my machine?
No. It is important to remember than Kazaa
Lite gets around Spyware by not installing it. If
it is already there, it will stay there unless you
remove it. Kazaa Lite will not use any Spyware components
that are present on your system.
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What
is the best way to remove Spyware?
To get rid of any Spyware you may have on
your PC (including some you probably didn't know
about!) the best tool to use is Ad-Aware,
from Lavasoft. Ad-Aware will search your memory,
registry and hard drive for any Spyware or Adware
it knows about and offer to delete it. It is updated
regularly with any newfound software. Not only will
it remove Spyware components, but it will clean
their settings out of your registry and also delete
any cookies set by advert banners on web sites.
An alternative spyware removal utility is Spybot
Search&Destroy.
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Ad-Aware
says I have a cydoor dll in Kazaa Lite, is that
spyware?
No. That file is a dummy to trick Kazaa.
We would NEVER put spyware in Kazaa Lite.
You should update your copy of Ad-aware. Newer
version recognize more types of spyware and it
knows the difference between the real and the
dummy CyDoor dll.
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Ad-Aware
doesn't say I have the cydoor dll, is that a problem?
It's okay. Recent Ad-Aware versions can tell
the difference between the real cydoor dll file
and the dummy file that comes with Kazaa Lite. |
