What are spyware and Adware?

What kind of problems or harms spywares can cause on a computer?
Any “Spyware Horror” Stories to share?

Spyware is computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent. The term Spyware, which was coined in 1995 but wasn’t widely used for another five years, is often used interchangeably with adware and malware.

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. 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). Spyware may collect different types of information. Some variants attempt to track the websites a user visits and then send this information to an advertising agency. More malicious variants attempt to intercept passwords or credit card numbers as a user enters them into a web form or other applications.

Spybot S&D is a common anti-spyware application that can scan and remove spyware from ones computer.

Wow nooobs