why does spybot find a virus in mozilla firefox (alexa related)?

Question

Need help

Answer 1

Alexa's toolbar has been accused of spying on your Internet activities by sending all of your surfing records back to alexa via a background Internet connection.

According to alexa this is done in order to track Web site popularity among other things, and while this is true, nobody knows for sure if or how else the information is being used.
The problem is, alexa never told anyone that the information was being used or sent to them in the background until after enough accusations flew their way... Although this particular event happened 5-8 or so years ago, as you can see Alexa has to this day done little to educate the unaware, other than if you were insane enough to read through their entire TOS, I think somewhere in all of that it does state the legalese concerning this.

Spyware is defined as any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else.

Some spyware definitions claim that any software using a background connection for the purpose of sending this kind of information should not be allowed to do so without the user's Explicit consent and without tricking the user with an 'I agree' button where the sentence that explains the use of said connection is towards the end of a 3-page long TOS, for example.

And unfortunately, alexa fits the definition.
Even if they're playing it clean because nobody can prove they're not, but those of us who know about it still don't like it.

Answer 2

not virus, but it is spyware, get rid of it.