In 2007, the CA Anti-Spyware team was instrumental in exposing the fact that Facebook was collecting personal information about their users, without their knowledge, even when those users opted out of Facebook's ill-fated Beacon program, and even when those users were not logged into Facebook.
The FTC has recently invoked the doctrine against Spyware.
All services to the public are free, including malware and rootkit cleanup of infected computers and removal instructions on rogue anti-spyware programs.
This technique is used heavily today by the groups behind the spyware CoolWebSearch (CWS).
The frequency of advertising pop-ups for spyware, generated from a partnership with advertising distributor Walnut Ventures, who had a direct partnership with Direct Revenue, could be increased or decreased based on Yahoo!’s immediate revenue needs, according to some former employees in Yahoo!’s sales department.
This type of vulnerability has been exploited to silently install various malware (such as spyware, remote control software, worms and such) onto computers browsing a malicious web page.
In 2009 the AIM-listed spyware company Phorm created a website Stopphoulplay.com to attack Williamson and fellow campaigner Alexander Hanff.
Microsoft Active Protection Service (abbreviated MAPS and formerly known as Microsoft SpyNet) is the network of Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials users that help determine which programs are classified as spyware.
For example, the use of social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to track a person's activity and movements, the use of spyware to monitor a person's computer and Internet use, and the use of global satellite positioning devices to track a person's physical movement and location, usually by a domestic violence abuser.