We deride companies that give out our information, and curse those who get it. And we certainly don't want anyone to be tracing our steps as we surf the Internet. We worry about people we don't know tracking our movement around the web, about hackers breaking into our systems and stealing our data and passwords. There are quite a few software applications available that do just that - spy on and record every movement we make on our PCs, logging the information without our knowledge. But used properly, this kind of software does have some positive implementations.
Employers can check up on what their employees are doing.
Spy applications monitor activity and which programs are being used. They can record keystrokes, window titles, and visited URLs. They can also take snapshots of what exactly is appearing on the PCs display. The programs also hide or disguise themselves once they've been installed, to prevent suspicion or notice. For instance, after installing and configuring the software, the application will remove its desktop and systray icons.