Call Home Spyware
^{Published June 2003}

With the increasing sophistication of computer programming a number of organisations have been pre-programming Call Home Spyware into their products.

Call Home Spyware calls home with information about what you are using on your computer, what sites you visit and what files you access. One of the most notorious pieces of Call Home Spyware is pre-programmed into a recent version of Windows Media Player. This programme reportedly calls home and advises the company of every single sound clip you play using Windows Media Player.

The companies who programme Call Home Spyware into their products assure us that the calling home facility is only a market research tool to enable them to target advertising material to your tastes. It is very rare for Call Home Spyware to do anything other than collect information but they are designed to collect information about your computer and your behaviour without your knowledge or consent.

It is possible to install a programme onto your computer that will

• Identify Spyware on your PC
• Give you the option to Block known products
• Give you the option to Immunize your PC against Spyware
• Give you the option to disable Spyware while enabling you to continue using the programme built with Spyware encoded.

I use Spybot Search and Destroy on my PC. It is freeware (free to use) and can be downloaded off the internet. Go to http://security.kolla.de/ and click on Download on the black toolbar beneath the banner. This will load the download page. On this page you can download Spybot Search and Destroy by moving down until you see Download SpyBot-S&D here, then click on one of the Download Here buttons. From this page you can also get an overview of the product and a list of features as well as screenshots (showing how your screen would look when running Spybot Search and Destroy) by clicking on the appropriate links on the left-hand blue menu.

HOME