Lawmakers have yet to get a handle on the best way to combat computer "spyware" that tracks Internet users' online activity, a nonprofit policy group said.

Concern about spyware has grown over the past several years as online advertisers and song-swapping networks like Kazaa have placed programs on users' computers to monitor their activity or use their computers' processors for other activities.

Read more: CNN.

Well at least Gator won't have to worry about this since they aren't considered spyware puke:

But unfortunately I agree that it will be hard to stop from happening period.

Maybe if we get MS to put Ad-Aware and/or Spybot without giving the user the choice in the next Service Pack...

Personally, I consider spyware to be on the same level as virii. This stuff causes many problems, mostly by stealing resources and hijacking your browser and other such annoyances. They should be wiped out at all costs.

Time to burn them down and salt the earth! :hotouch:

Maybe they need a petition and have a bunch of people signing it claiming that spyware invades their privacy and slows and corrupts their systems.