The Pew Internet & American Life Project site has an interesting study on users reported changing Internet behavior in regards to spyware/adware.
The report indicates people responding to their survey say they no longer open attachments unless they know it is "safe", are more likely to read through the user agreement/disclaimer/privacy statement, have stopped going to questionable sites, and 18 percent said they've switched to a more secure web browser.
That said, it appears what users actually do is somewhat different from what they report. For example, while 50 percent say they may have spyware/adware on their PCs, when their PCs are scanned, more than 80 percent actually were infected. And while more may be reading the user agreements than before, a full 72 percent still don't. In one instance, where a company set up a fake user agreement that included a $1,000USD reward to the first person to claim it, 3,000 people clicked on through before someone actually read it and claimed the reward.
It appears that while people's awareness of spyware/adware may be increasing, the great majority are still unable or unwilling to do much about it. Clearly, a better job must be done in educating people about the problems associated with spyware/adware and solutions to mitigate the problem.
Aloha!
