Malware: Malware, or malicious software, is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and spyware. These malicious programs can perform a variety of functions, including stealing, encrypting or deleting sensitive data, altering or hijacking core computing functions and monitoring users’ computer activity without their permission. - source
What about malware that is not harmful to a user, but is also not installed by the intent of the user? Outside of legalspace, Is it still malware? If it’s not malicious, but someone installs it, is it still malware?
This is my definition as well, but so many other software providers package shit in their executable. Does SE someone to install stuff relieve the software from being defined as malware?
If a software is containing features that is irrelevant to the application’s functioning or cause, and if those features could be considered malign then that software should be classified as a malware. There is a very legitimate software I know of which is recording your keystrokes, taking screenshots, recording you via webcam and periodically sending all these data to a remote server. It can’t be classified as a malware because all of those actions are consistent with the application’s purpose.