We know that spyware/malware is annoying - all those popups, slowing down machines, and showing hijacked search results. But it is also a huge problem for affiliates, affiliate managers, and online merchants. Here is an interesting article;

Spyware Researcher Issues Critical Report
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_ne...?newsId=259401

You can also find some very interesting reading at Benjamin Edelman's website;
http://www.benedelman.org/

Isn't this a recurring issue with affiliate programs? I remember browsing merchants on ClickBank and/or Clickxchange (can't remember which exactly) selling 'software' to counter this 'hijacking' from as far back as 2000.

Talking about spyware and other annoyances, I FINALLY went and installed a spyware checker on my PC yesterday. I am usually careful when I am on the Net, i.e. I never get online if my firewall is not installed and working, I regularly update my AV pattern and Windows ME, disabled ActiveX since too long ago and (recently) I almost never use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to visit websites unless it's to view my own. Still, I was not really certian if I was safe...

Anyway, I downloaded and installed : Bazooka Spyware Scanner by Kephyr.com and ran the scanner. Found just 2 bugs; one dialer thingy and the other is the MS Media Player GUID. Not bad for a PC that's been unformatted since 2003... The dialer for some strange reason was only found in a registry entry but the executable was no where to be found on my HDD, so I guess the AV took care of that!