Spyware Check - who is paying the price for your free software?.

Spychecker.com is a public database of Spyware products. The database is maintained on a daily basis and new software is added or removed as needed. Information is gathered from Internet sources, ad companies and reliable sources in the software distribution industry.

We use the term "Spyware" because it has become the Internet jargon for certain advertising supported products. Spychecker.com does not suggest that any of the advertising networks are using the collected data in any other way than stated in their privacy policy.
And NO, we did not invent the term "Spyware" either... :-)

Mission Statement

Currently all products enabled with one of the following adware systems are commonly referred to in the internet community as "Spyware" since they make "periodic use of your Internet connection in the background":
Aureate/Radiate, Conducent/Timesink, Web 3000, Cydoor, webHancer, EverAd, Onflow

Is Spyware illegal?
Even though the name may indicate so, Spyware is not an illegal type of software in any way. However there are certain issues that a privacy oriented user may object to and therefore prefer not to use the product. This usually involves the tracking and sending of data and statistics via a server installed on the user's PC.

What's the hype about?
While legitimate adware companies will disclose the nature of data that is collected and transmitted in their privacy statement (linked from our database), there is almost no way for the user to actually control what data is being sent. The fact is that the technology is in theory capable of sending much more than just banner statistics - and this is why many people feel uncomfortable with the idea.

On the other hand...
Millions of people are using advertising supported "spyware" products and could care less about the privacy hype..., in fact some "Spyware" programs are among the most popular downloads on the Internet.

Where we stand...
We are not trying to scare you into not using "Spyware" nor do we want to sweet talk you into it. Spychecker.com provides a service that let's you determine whether a product is in fact "true" freeware or contains one of the tracking devices that caused the Internet community to nickname it "Spyware". Furthermore, we are linking to the privacy policy of the advertising company that distributes the product, so you can review it and make an educated decision on whether you want to use the product in it's advertising supported state or not.

If you are interested in exploring the topic further, we recommend the following resources for further reading:
Whatis.com definition of "Spyware"
GRC.com In depth Spyware investigation
Rob Rosenberger MYTH: Aureate DLLs Trojan
ZDnet: What is Spyware?
Deja Usenet discussions about spyware
Are security fears running ahead of reality?

Featured in Lockergnome
"Seek this safe super sleuth for all your spyware searches."

If you are downloading software from the Internet, you will sooner or later run into free products that are advertising supported and will install the tracking mechanism on your system. Depending on the source of your download, it may not always be properly identified as Adware (or Spyware), and unless you carefully read the license agreement, you may not find out until it's too late.

To save you the trouble (and download time) we created this database that contains a complete and update list of known Spyware products. Simply enter the name of the software and we will return the results. If the product is indexed in our database, you will also be provided with the name of the advertising network and a link to their privacy policy.

Developers
If you are a software author and are no longer offering an Adware version of your software, please contact us and we will verify the information and then remove your product from the database.