spyware

   1.   Software   which,   when  installed  by  a  user  insufficiently
   enlightened  to  avoid  it, enables third parties to snoop the user's
   hard  drive  or  monitor  their network transactions. Though the term
   seems  to  have  entered  use  in  the  late  1990s, it achieved real
   popularity  as  applied  to  Microsoft  Windows  XP. Some {back door}
   features  in  XP permit Microsoft to (for example) covertly scan your
   disk directories for the names of files it might deem to be {warez}.

   2.  Systems  for  spying  on email and web traffic, such as the FBI's
   Carnivore.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {-ware}]