I’m often called upon by friends and relatives and acquaintances to help them with their computer problems. The most frequent problem I’ve seen the past year or so has been popup ads showing even when a browser isn’t launched.

There are programs that can find themselves on your computer in a number of ways, all of which are questionable. Some of them serve ads. Others collect information about your computer usage, and surfing habits, and “phone home” with that information.

I’ll point people towards the and.doxdesk.com parasite page if I can’t help in person. In addition to having a script on it that will sometimes identify which parasite might be infecting a browser, it also has links to some great software programs such as ad aware and spybot. The page also has some details on steps to take for specific parasites, though many of them involve doing things like editing a windows registry file. That can, and should be, a little intimidating for the non technical oriented.

There’s another step that we can take, regarding spyware. If you get calls like I do, to try to solve spyware problems, or if you just want to avoid those problems in the first place, consider raising your voice and letting the Federal Trade Commission know how you feel.

There’s a great example of a comment to the FTC over at Gamblog. The post notes that there will be a hearing on the subject open to the public on April 19th, 2004 and urges people to leave a comment on the FTC Spyware Workshop page. There’s a link on that page to “submit a comment.”

They also have a press release which notes that there is an extension of the public comment period. It was supposed to expire on March 19, 2004. The new deadline is May 21, 2004.

Please, leave them a comment. Let’s end the emergency housecalls that people have been making to exercise computers of spyware. Thanks!