When Robin Klein, a sophomore business major, recently ran a program called "Ad-aware" on her computer, it found over 266 items classified as "spyware" installed on her hard drive.
"I was shocked, and a little scared, that I didn't know any of that was on my computer," she said.
According to the Web site maintained by the Computer Information Technology Help Desk, "spyware is software that helps a third-party (i.e. a marketing company) gather information about a person or persons without the knowledge or consent of the individual. These small programs often 'quietly' install themselves during the installation of a different application, such as a peer-to-peer file-sharing program."
Mark Ferguson, the CIT Help Desk manager, said spyware generally operates by sending the URL of every Web site a user visits to a commercial database. In addition to sending information to marketing companies, spyware can prevent certain Web sites from loading and slow down computer functions.
Ferguson said students who have downloaded "KaZaA," "iMesh," "BearShare" or any other file-sharing programs on their computers are likely to have spyware active on their machine.
"If I make spyware, and I want to piggyback it onto another program, where would I get the most bang for my buck? I'd get it from file-sharing programs," Ferguson said.
One issue concerning spyware installed on computers connected to the UB network is confidentiality, said Ferguson.
"The business of a university is intellectual property," he said. "What I'm concerned with most of all is that the student's system is healthy and that it works in a manner that your property won't get accidentally disclosed or damaged."
According to Ferguson, students who have spyware on their computers may have difficulty accessing their MyUB page. As a solution, the Help Desk has made an anti-spyware program named "Ad-aware," available to download from their Web site at www.cit.buffalo.edu.
Ferguson said he urges everyone to download "Ad-aware" as routine computer maintenance, done as often as they would "change the oil on your car, or go to the doctor's once a year."
Klein said her computer is noticeably faster now that the 266 spyware components have been removed.
According to Sen. John Edwards' Web site, a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives last year that would force all spyware programs to gain explicit consent before installing themselves on a computer. The bill, titled "Spyware Control & Privacy Protection Act," was never acted on by the House and is still pending this year.
Ferguson said the responsibility of monitoring what programs are installed on a computer ultimately lies in the hands of a computer's user.
"People have to pay a lot of attention to (what programs are) installed on their computer, and start weighing the benefits of these programs against their own privacy concerns," he said.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
