spyware

noun

spy·​ware ˈspī-ˌwer 

: software that is installed in a computer or mobile device without the user's knowledge and that transmits information about the user's activities

Jan should scan her computer for viruses, worms, and spyware …

—Kenneth Baldauf and Ralph Stair

Smartphones belonging to more than three dozen journalists, human rights activists, and business executives have been infected with powerful spyware that an Israeli firm sells, purportedly to catch terrorists and criminals, The Washington Post and other publications reported.

—Dan Goodin

Examples of spyware in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally added the NSO Group, the Israeli firm that produces Pegasus spyware, to the Entity List, which limits the ease with which they are traded. —Marietje Schaake, Foreign Affairs, 26 Sep. 2024

The pagers were apparently intended as a low-tech communication device to avoid location-tracking or spyware. —Richard Lawler, The Verge, 17 Sep. 2024

Firstly, the emails that are being sent claim to have compromised the victim’s computer with the infamous Pegasus spyware. —Davey Winder, Forbes, 8 Sep. 2024

The combination of the spyware lie, another stating that the attacker has your password, which is often accompanied by a password that is, indeed, known to you, and a photo of your house is likely to send an already worried person over the edge. —Davey Winder, Forbes, 8 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

spyware

noun

spy·​ware

ˈspī-ˌwer

: software that is installed in a computer or mobile device without the user's knowledge and that transmits information about the user's activities