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Privacy-invasive software is a category of software that invades a user's privacy to gather information about the user and their device without prior knowledge or consent. Such software is sometimes loosely referred to as "spyware" but the information gathering can be malicious or non-malicious.^[1] The collected data is often used commercially such as being sold to advertisers or other third parties.^[2].

^ Boldt, Martin; Carlsson, Bengt (2006). "Privacy-Invasive Software and Preventive Mechanisms". 2006 International Conference on Systems and Networks Communications (ICSNC'06). p. 21. doi:10.1109/ICSNC.2006.62. ISBN 0-7695-2699-3. S2CID 15389209.
^ Boldt, Martin (2007). "Privacy-Invasive Software Exploring Effects and Countermeasures" (PDF). Blekinge Institute of Technology Licentiate Dissertation Series. 01.