Spyware is a broad category of malware designed to secretly observe activity on a device and send those observations to a snooper. Consumer spyware detections increased 27 percent from 2017 to 2018. Spyware can also be used to steal personal information, such as account passwords and credit card numbers, which can result in identity theft and fraud. The most common method of distributing spyware is to get users to click on a link that leads to a malicious website. One of the most common ways to distribute spyware in the U.S. is to use an infected ad network.”]
Source: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3384100/what-is-spyware-how-it-works-and-how-to-prevent-it.html