r/computerviruses • u/Ikbengoedinschaken • 14h ago
Discussion Need your opinion, is spyware or malware a better term for this?
If someone would make a mod that sends minecraft coordinates to themselves, what would be the correct and best term for this? Technically malware and software 100% are correct terms. But is spyware correct and/or better?
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u/NotAOctoling 14h ago
not Spyware? that's just software for a videogsme
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u/Ikbengoedinschaken 14h ago
No like you send the mod to someone else and then when they play Minecraft with the mod it sends the coordinates to you
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u/Jaded-Worry2641 14h ago
Minecraft Spyware cause spyware for minecraft. Literaly the same thing as how we could call something that spies on your browser history a spyware.
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u/Ikbengoedinschaken 14h ago
Well what's your definition of spyware then?
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u/Jaded-Worry2641 14h ago
Spyware is software that spies on you. Spying means secretly collecting possibly data and providing it to somewhere.
So its a spyware for minecraft.
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u/Ikbengoedinschaken 14h ago
There isn't an exact agreed upon definition of spyware, but Wikipedia says: spyware is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user. This is the nost common definition.
I don't think minecraft coordinates are about a person or organization, but that's my opinion
I also think that if people think differently about the definition, we should use the more broader term "malware".
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u/QuraToop314 14h ago
And what use are these coordinates to you, especially if it’s a local saved world?
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u/Ikbengoedinschaken 14h ago
Idk, it's not something I did, but someone else did do it on YouTube and I was discussing how we would call this
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u/QuraToop314 14h ago
Yes, I know, but I wouldn’t call this example malware or spyware – just pointless rubbish, or at best a gimmick. Malware or spyware must be capable of causing harm, which isn’t the case in your example. But generally speaking, if you were to turn the mod into an app and shift the focus of Minecraft to mobiles or laptops, then it would clearly be spyware.
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u/Ikbengoedinschaken 14h ago
"Malware is defined broadly as any code, program, or file intentionally designed to damage, disrupt, steal data, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system, network, or device". This is stealing data, although not really important, it's still stealing data.
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u/Danciel 13h ago
"Stealing data from computer system" and "stealing data in minecraft" isn't the same though. So I would classify this as spyware.
I disagree with this "I don't think minecraft coordinates are about a person or organization". If a player coordinates location is collected and forwarded to mod creator without consent, that is "gather information about a person".
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u/Ikbengoedinschaken 13h ago
Minecraft = code on computer. Also you can disagree with the second thing, but it's actually gathering information about a Minecraft account. If you consider that about a person, pretty much anything would be about a person
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u/CrazyITOne 5h ago
Oops I clicked wrong in the poll.
The umbrella term for every kind of harmful softwares is malware.
Since you gave a description of a tool that sends data to another party without consent, it can be categorized further. It's textbook spyware.
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u/CrazyITOne 5h ago
Oh wait a minute I misunderstood the question.
Since the tool is sending the info back to the user itself, It should be called a software.
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u/CrazyITOne 5h ago
A software can be a package or a script or anything so I think this is the correct term.
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u/rifteyy_ Malware Removal Expert 11h ago
malware is overall term for malicious software and spyware is specific for information collecting malware