A Free Educational Resource Created by Carnegie Mellon University to Empower You to Secure Your Part of Cyberspace

Adware

Software that displays advertising banners or pop-up windows

Adware is any software that displays advertising banners or pop-up windows while it is running. Adware is usually included with freeware, i.e., software that is free for you to download and use. Instead of charging you for the software, the developers make money from the advertising. Some freeware gives you the option of purchasing the software to get rid of the ads. Many popular music players, file-sharing applications, instant messengers, and games include adware.

Adware sometimes gets confused with spyware, which is software that tracks your activities and sends information back to a third party without your consent. Spyware is sometimes included in adware, but true adware does not collect any information about you, although it can slow down your computer and use up your Internet resources.

Protective Measures

Practices

  • Read the License Agreement and Privacy Policy thoroughly before installing an application: These documents state whether the application will install additional software on your computer in order to show advertisements. These documents will also tell you if you have to install the spyware to use the application.

  • Remove adware that you don't want on your computer: If adware becomes too much of a nuisance, by showing too many pop-up ads or by slowing down your computer, there are ways to remove it. This can be difficult, however, since some adware companies purposefully make their software difficult to uninstall. If you can't find the program under Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs, use a spyware removal application, or search the Internet to find manual uninstall instructions for adware and spyware programs.

Tools

  • Spyware removal applications: Anti-virus applications generally do not rid your machine of spyware, but there are many commercial and free spyware removal tools available. Some examples are Spybot - Search & Destroy , Ad-Aware , Pest Patrol , and Microsoft Windows Defender . Make sure that you find a legitimate spyware-removal application, since some products touted as anti-spyware applications are ineffective or actually install spyware and adware on your machine. Spyware Warrior  can point you to some good applications and tell you which applications to avoid.

Legal Issues

Legal

Adware is legal since you agree to let the application display ads on your desktop when you agree to the License Agreement. This is why it is so important to read License Agreements before installing software.

References

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