As a result, users and family members who use the same PC wind up broadcasting their online behavior or personal information to unfamiliar third parties and thus become long-term targets of constant, focused promotions.

While nearly all the software companies claim users can stop the ads by uninstalling their programs, many leave active spyware components behind. More troubling, the critics say, many users who choose to receive ads rather than pay for software don’t fully understand what they’re getting themselves into. Even so, privacy experts say millions of eager teens and otherwise-wary adult Internet users download the programs just to locate a game or MP3 music file, miss the terse disclosures and, like Pierce, are surprised when they receive a stream of advertisements. The companies disclose that fact somewhere in the download process. In most cases, it’s there to send ads that foot the bill so software companies can give their programs away for free. This sort of spyware, as many Web aficionados call it, rides onto tens of millions of home and office computers each week inside popular applications such as KaZaA. In return, Pierce received a steady stream of targeted, but unwanted, pop-up ads on his PC.

As BONZI.COM Software put it, “He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail and download like no other friend you’ve ever had!” He was also a double agent: From then on, whenever Pierce surfed the Web, his cartoon companion and a handful of other programs bundled with KaZaA would quietly transmit records of his behavior back to third-party servers. “But instead I also got this other program, and very soon I had a talking monkey running around my screen. “I did a custom download and only elected to get KaZaA,” he said. So after carefully downloading KaZaA - the most popular file-sharing program on the Web with 90 million copies requested so far this year - Pierce was not amused when his new BonziBUDDY showed up, too. Years of heavy Internet use have taught him to read the fine print most consumers ignore when they install free programs on their PCs. Free Software is the Lure, Online Surveillance is the RealityĮliot Pierce, a product manager for a large online media company, scours the World Wide Web each day for music files, games and flashy new freeware utilities.

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