a standard. There are notable similarities between this situation and binding arbitration clauses which have become inevitable in contracts in the United States. Furthermore, certain forms and strategies of advertising have been shown to lead to psychological harm, especially in children. One example is childhood eating disorders - several studies have reported a positive association between exposure to beauty and fashion magazines and an increased level of weight concerns or eating disorder symptoms in girls. Malware The term adware is frequently used to describe a form of malware (malicious software) which presents unwanted advertisements to the user of a computer. The advertisements produced by adware are sometimes in the form of a pop-up, sometimes in an "unclosable window", and sometimes injected into web pages. When the term is used in this way, the severity of its implication varies. While some sources rate adware only as an "irritant", others classify it as an "online threat" or even rate it as seriously as computer viruses and trojans. The precise definition of the term in this context also varies. Adware that observes the computer user's activities without their consent and reports it to the software's author is called spyware. Adwares may collect personal information of the user, causing privacy concerns. However, most adware operates legally and some adware manufacturers have even sued antivirus companies for blocking adware. Programs have been developed to detect, quarantine, and remove advertisement-displaying malware, including Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Spyware Doctor and Spybot – Search & Destroy. In addition, almost all commercial antivirus software currently detect adware and spyware, or offer a separate detection module. A new wrinkle is adware (using stolen certificates) that disables anti-malware and virus protection; technical remedies are available. Adware has also been discovered in certain low-cost Android devices, particularly those made by small Chinese firms running on Allwinner systems-on-chip. There are even cases where adware code is embedded deep into files stored on the system and boot partitions, to which removal involves extensive (and complex) modifications to the firmware. See also Malvertising Online advertising Typhoid adware Notes References Online advertising Types of malware