Microsoft has filed a patent to allow them to scrape your hard drive, searching through the contents of your files, to serve you targeted advertising that they just know you’ll want to see because it will be based on the contents of those files. It’s kind of like having Bill Gates reading your computer over your shoulder and saying “Ooh, I have just the thing for you!”

Are you one of the countless people whose Windows PC has been affected by Winfixer, ErrorSafe, WinAntiSpyware, WinAntiVirus, SystemDoctor, or DriveCleaner? A class-action lawsuit has just been filed by attorney Joseph M. Bochner against the makers of Winfixer (which is the same as ErrorSafe, WinAntiSpyware, WinAntiVirus, SystemDoctor and DriveCleaner), and you may want to get on board!

Consumer Reports has released their recommendations for the best anti spam software, the best anti spyware remover, and the best anti virus software.

Did you know that your innocent-looking little cell phone can be used to listen in on your regular conversations – conversations which aren’t even taking place on your cellphone but just in the room in which your cell phone is sitting – without you even knowing? Known as a “roving bug”, this technology can be used for eavesdropping even when your mobile phone is turned off!

If your search results during a Google search turn up sites which Google has reason to believe may attempt to shove malware (spyware, adware, etc.) onto your machine – and if you click on one of those result links – Google now serves up an intermediate page warning “the site you are about to visit may harm your computer!”

MySpace ads for DeckOutYourDeck.com (Deck Out Your Deck) have become a vector for spyware, infecting millions of users with the PurityScan and ClickSpring spyware trojans.

By all accounts, DigiKeyGen is a password generator which purports to generate and provide passwords for the user which will gain them access to pay-to-play porn sites for free. But if DigiKeyGen sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.

Spybot Search Destroy for Windows XP is a free anti-spyware program for Windows XP (and other Windows versions) which comes very highly recommended.

W32.Sinnaka.a is the hook which phishers are using to scare people into buying Spy Trooper, World AntiSpy, PS Guard and Raze Spyware, some of which are merely repackaged versions of other rogue spyware programs, such as SpyDemolisher, SpySheriff, and SpywareNo. They are doing it with fake Windows Security Center sites and bogus W32.Sinnaka.a virus alerts. Don’t let it fool you.

2Search spyware is nasty stuff. It shows up uninvited on your computer, and then hijacks your web browser, taking you places you don’t really want to go, and exposing you to even more spyware.

Jealous Lover Spyware “Lover Spy” users are arrested along with Lover Spy’s author, and charged with all sorts of nasty crimes. If you’re thinking of using spyware to spy on an ex, don’t.

Spyware which redirects a user’s computer to a particular website is not uncommon, and may be quite lucrative. But can lead to jail.

Search marketing company 180 Solutions has filed a lawsuit against several of its own affiliates, after it discovered that those affiliates were using botnets to install the 180solutions solution on unsuspecting users’ computers, without their permission. 180 Solutions explains that they “provide search assistant software that delivers consumers to highly…

Sunbelt Software, who last weekend discovered the CoolWebSearch trojan keylogging software which is right now stealing bank account, username, and password information from thousands of Windows users, has just released a free tool to detect and remove the keylogger, it has announced. “This is a very dangerous piece of spyware…

The implications are staggering. Internet security software company Sunbelt Software was investigating CoolWebSearch, a spyware package, when they noticed that stowing away in the CoolWebSearch download were two trojans, a spam zombie engine, and a keystroke logging program. It was the keylogger program which took their breath away. The keystroke…