In keeping with emergent industry standards, All Star Reviews uses the word, "Spyware" to refer to potentially unwanted software that is non-viral in nature.
Spyware includes the following behavior that is illegal under existing law - Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45 - as an unfair or deceptive act or practice:
- Gathers information from a user's computer without knowledge OR consent;
- Reports the information to the creator of the software or to one or more third parties;
- Is installed on a user's computer without having given adequate notice to the user;
- Provides the user with little or no control over removing the software.
What is an Anti-Spyware Application?
Anti-spyware is a software program that removes spyware from the user’s computer. Once installed, the best of these applications also work in real time to prevent the user from becoming infected with spyware.
Why You Need an Anti-Spyware Application: Spyware's purpose is to monitor your activities and transmit data back to a third party. The longer it stays, the more effective it is. The information captured by spyware can be used for identity theft and other fraudulent activities. Without spyware protection, your passwords, logins, user IDs account numbers and other sensitive information are easy pickings for hackers. A good anti-spyware will block these malicious programs and maintain the safety of Internet transactions such as banking and shopping.
How We Rate Anti-Spyware Applications:
All Star Reviews’ experts provide our readers with a quick, high level review and in-depth technical review of each application and then rate the top anti-spyware applications according the following criteria:
- Effectiveness: The ability of each application to kill spyware of all types, including keyloggers, botnets, Trojans, hijackers, dialers, rootkits, and complex blended threats.
- Price: the retail price of a single license for each anti-spyware product reviewed.
- Dollar Value: The effectiveness of the product with respect to the retail price of a single license for each anti-spyware product reviewed.
- Customer Support: The comprehensiveness and availability of customer support for each anti-spyware product reviewed.
- Ease of Use: The intuitiveness of each anti-spyware product reviewed; the relative ease with which a user can benefit from the technology without having to overcome a steep learning curve.
- Real-time Protection: The ability of each anti-spyware product to detect spyware before malicious programs infect the user’s system. This category also includes the frequency with which the product is updated to protect the user against new online threats.
- Scans: A link to a free diagnostic scan for each product, where applicable.
- More Information: A link to the manufacturer’s Web site for each anti-spyware product reviewed.