| By :
George Hutton
With more and more people today spending more and more time on the Internet, it's no wonder that over ninety percent have spyware installed on their computer in one form or another. However, in some cases, that's not such a bad thing. In fact, in many cases it is a good thing. A valuable and positive use for spyware is for parents to monitor their children when they are online. There are various kinds of programs that record computer activity, including the web sites visited, as well as the specific keys entered. These are also known as keylogger programs. If you are worried about your son or daughter visiting a dangerous site, then this would be extremely beneficial. For example, you could monitor what is being typed in various Internet chat conversations. Many companies use spyware on both dedicated machines and machines shared by several coworkers. You are, of course, at work, and the company doesn't want to lose any time due to people goofing off on the Internet. Of course, it makes sense for employers to want to get as much productivity as they can with the economy in the shape that it's in. Another net benefit is for programmers to get some revenue for some of the software that they develop. Many software that is developed by individuals is offered for free, at least up front. When people download certain software programs that doesn't require any money, it often comes with spyware that can generate some revenue for the software developer. Many of these software programs let you know up front that there is spyware involved in the "free" download. This is good for you, as you are getting some free software, and good for the developers, as they are getting a little bit of revenue for their efforts. Of course, not all people and developers are so forthcoming with the attachment of spyware to their products. Beware when you download so called "free" software. There is likely some kind of spyware hidden in there. Despite piggy backing into your system, most spyware doesn't really do much damage to your computer. Only when you have many programs running at once does it present a problem. Naturally, there is a negative side to spyware. If you download a particularly hard kind to get rid of, it can be extremely frustrating. Many spyware programs are developed specifically to be hard to find unless you have some cutting edge software to get rid of it. If you happen to download some potentially dangerous software, uninstalling the program it came with may be the only option. If that doesn't work, then it would be best to run one of many spyware removal systems available.
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