If and when my machine gets inspected with spyware, what does the person(s) who put it there hope to gain from it? Is it simply malice, like these computer geeks who infect computers with worms and viruses simply because they can? Is someone, somewhere getting a detailed account of the pages I visited, hoping to use that information for nefarious purposes (because SDMB and mlb.com are so extremely juicy :rolleyes: )?
Spyware companies track what sites you go to in order to collect marketing data, which they sell to other companies. Adware causes pop-ups ads to come up on your computer, which is another means of getting money. They also tend to divert you web browser to their web pages, to get more money from the ads on their pages.
I use Netscape on my Mac for the tabbed browsing feature. We still use IE on the PC, but we’re rarely online with it.
Does Netscape for the PC have the same features?
I don’t have a spyware problem on the Mac, of course, but I would like a pop up blocker. Any trustworthy ones?
Netscape on the PC also has tabs, and a built in pop-up blocker(i think) - I use Firefox, which is from the same code base, but with less junk in it.
If you do want a pop-up blocker for Internet Exploder, then the Google Toolbar is the way to go.