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Presumably, you know about spyware. Without your knowledge, web sites you visit and programs you install hidden spies on your hard disk. These can monitor and report your keystrokes, most notably credit card information. They can track and report your web search habits. Your privacy disappears. For a good article on the threats spyware poses, see Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware
There are free programs that help you identify and remove spyware from your hard drive. One of them is Spybot. I have used it for years. Download it here:
http://spybot.safer-networking.de
If you use your home computer only for non-commercial purposes, this program is free: Ad-Aware.
Because spyware is multiplying so rapidly, you need more than one program to identify and remove spyware.
Run each of these programs at least once a month. Once a week is better.
Even better than dealing with spyware after it has been installed on your hard drive, the following two programs block spyware before it is installed.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
Don't ignore spyware's threat to your privacy. A few simple steps can reduce the problem to almost zero.
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