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Adware

nounid 1457·updated May 9, 2026
candidate

A software package that automatically plays, displays or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used Scope Note: In most cases, this is done without any notification to the user or without the user’s consent. The term adware may also refer to software that displays advertisements, whether or not it does so with the user’s consent; such programs display advertisements as an alternative to shareware registration fees. These are classified as adware in the sense of advertising supported software, but not as spyware. Adware in this form does not operate surreptitiously or mislead the user, and it provides the user with a specific service.

Classifications

Entity Type

Threat92%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Sensitivity

85%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Information Class

90%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Variants

plural
Adwares
possessive
Adware's
pluralpossessive
Adwares'

Framework definitions

ISACA Cybersecurity Glossary1 senseview framework →
§1
A software package that automatically plays, displays or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used Scope Note: In most cases, this is done without any notification to the user or without the user’s consent. The term adware may also refer to software that displays advertisements, whether or not it does so with the user’s consent; such programs display advertisements as an alternative to shareware registration fees. These are classified as adware in the sense of advertising supported software, but not as spyware. Adware in this form does not operate surreptitiously or mislead the user, and it provides the user with a specific service.

Outgoing relationships

No outgoing triples
This term is not the subject of any RDF-style relationship yet.

Incoming relationships

No incoming triples
No other term currently asserts a relationship to this one.