What Does Spyware Do Once It Is Downloaded on the Computer?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Noah, and I'm going to explain what spyware does once it is downloaded on the computer. Basically, spyware or malicious programs, which install themselves once they're downloaded, and then collect information from your computer to be sent back to someone or cause your computer to view lots of advertisement, for example. When they slow down your computer and harm the way it functions, this is actually, basically, a side effect and it's not its main purpose, like for a virus. Rather, what spyware attempts to do is simply collect information like whatever you're typing on your keyboard so that it can be transmitted back to its creator, for example. That means that if you enter a credit card number, let's say, and you're shopping online, if you have particularly bad spyware, it could've collected that credit card number, which you typed in, and sent back to someone. If you think you might have some spyware on your computer, don't worry too much, though. If you have an anti-virus system, it most likely includes an anti-spyware as well. So you can run that and try to have it removed. Or you can also download some free specialized anti-spyware removal tools like Spybot Search&Destroy, which you can find at safer-networking.org, or Ad-Aware free edition, which you can get from Lavasoft at lavasoft.com."