What I did not know about Ad ware.

When most of us started using a computer, it had a black and white monitor. Programming languages such as BASIC and LOGO existed.

The advent of the internet brought about the biggest advertising space that ever existed. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

Along with the joys of the limitless boundaries of online advertising came Ad ware or advertising – supported software. This software automatically plays, shows, and always downloads adverts to a computer after the software is installed on the computer or as it is being used.

Although most people try and avoid downloading from unknown sources or sites, the most common sources of Ad ware are

• Advanced search engines
• Instant news and weather updates
• Computer games
• Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs
• Fun mouse pointers, desktop themes and backgrounds
• Emoticons and smileys used in emails

Ad wares piggy-back on these sources and once downloaded onto your PC they run in the background constantly creating advertisements. Some Ad wares are harmless which will close upon clicking OK or cancel while malicious Ad wares are those which a user needs to be aware of.

Malicious ad wares can:

• Breach security: It exploits various holes in the security and can automatically add new programs without the users’ knowledge.

• Violate your privacy as it constantly monitors and collects information about you that is not related to any customer preferences and these details can be sold to a third party.

• Weakens your PC by slowing it down with the various programs it is running in the background even when you ajavascript:void(0)re not using your computer
Most users do not realise that malicious Ad wares run on a PC until they an Ad ware cleaning software.

You can try this free scan if you would like to clean your PC of malicious Ad wares.


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