During a free trial of a spyware/adware detection and removal program, I came across a small number of spyware/adware programs that had been installed by different parties on the computer I was using. I successfully removed all of them but one. The one one which I did not remove, came with an advisory not to remove it because it had been placed by a company connected with the Nielsen ratings company and therefore collected valuable information.

I am not all that impressed with the Nielsen ratings company. I furthermore resent claims that it should have exclusive rights to intrusion on the privacy of others.

A local branch of a Nielsen-connected company once placed a bogus phone survey to my home one evening. I traced the call back to their office. The information I inadvertently had given them, I believe, put some people in danger.

Why is this company so special? Much spyware and adware on computers is unwanted and regarded with disdain. I do not like focus groups.

I recently had spyware and i used almost every program. Spybot search & Destroy, AVG anti-spyware etc. The products claim there are no more infections on my computer but that annoying pop up icon on the right side of the toolbar keeps telling me that i have spyware and should install a whole bunch of things! What can i do to get rid of this without paying anything? Thanks (I have windows XP)
I cant go to add/remove programs cause i dont know that the name of the file is, ive looked forever. And i cant right hand cliack on the icon cause it opens a page telling me what to buy.

I heard a lot of people complaining about that new Norton Spyware from the Yahoo toolbar. Should I reinstall the old Yahoo toolbar ?Or the new one is much better ?

I have a windows vista home premium computer.I allways noticed none of the time since i have this computer and it has built in microsoft software ‘windows defender’that i allways update too.but never noticed or it said that it found a spyware or maleware from my comuter and when i was suspicious about it i tried some different spyware software and they found few spyware-maleware from my computer.I am not sure if windows defender really working.

As the questions says, what is spyware and adware, why they exist, and why are they a problem?

Fairly detailed answers would be fantastic

Thanks in advance