In early 2001, Steve Gibson of Gibson Research realized that advertising software had been installed on his system, and suspected it was stealing his personal information. Since then, "spyware" has taken on its present sense.
However, in early 2000 the founder of Zone Labs, Gregor Freund, used the term in a press release for the ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall. Spyware at first denoted hardware meant for espionage purposes. The first recorded use of the term spyware occurred on Octoin a Usenet post that poked fun at Microsoft's business model.
In any case, these programs still use the resources of the host computer without permission. It is debatable whether such 'legitimate' uses of adware/spyware are malware since the user often has no knowledge of these 'legitimate' programs being installed on his/her computer and is generally unaware that these programs are infringing on his/her privacy. These programs are not considered malware, but are still spyware as they watch and observe for advertising purposes. However, a number of companies have incorporated forms of spyware into their products. Its products remove or disable existing spyware on the computers they are installed on and prevent its installation. The spread of spyware has led to the development of an entire anti-spyware industry. More malicious variants attempt to intercept passwords or credit card numbers as a user enters them into a web form or other applications.
Some variants attempt to track the websites a user visits and then send this information to an advertising agency. Spyware may collect different types of information. Purposes range from overtly criminal (theft of passwords and financial details) to the merely annoying (recording Internet search history for targeted advertising, while consuming computer resources). Personal information is secretly recorded with a variety of techniques, including logging keystrokes, recording Internet web browsing history, and scanning documents on the computer's hard disk. The term, coined in 1995 but not widely used for another five years, is often used interchangeably with adware and malware (software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer). Spyware is computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent.
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