If you or anyone else is concerned about spyware and your system's security, you should be running nothing less than ZoneAlarm as your firewall. It's free and it's simply the best you can get, trust me. It absolutely will NOT allow anything to go in or out of your system via your net connection (cable, DSL, dialup, etc.) without your permission. The home page resides here:
www.zonealarm.com
You might also want to stop by:
www.grc.com
They have all the info you could ever shake a stick that has to do with net security and spyware. They also show you how to make your system bullet proof against intrusion from net-based hackers, especially those running port scanners.
These 2 sites are easily the best addititons to my IE favorites to date and I've been using them for a LONG time now.
- DL