Hitbox is a popular web analytics tool and web analytics product created by WebSideStory, now Adobe, originally for adult entertainment websites. Some of the services have been declared spyware by several anti-spyware organizations, such as Lavasoft and the makers of Spybot - Search & Destroy. It is now widely used by commercial & other organizations across a variety of industrial sectors as a complete and integrated metrics solution for monitoring web traffic and driving marketing.
If a hitbox program is unknowingly downloaded to your computer, you will generally not be aware of its presence; however, it could result in slowing down of your computer. An unseen "hitbox" program may also cause other anti-virus or anti-spyware programs to run or take defensive action, which could also then result in slowing down your computer. For instance you may see "TeaTimer" running in your file manager - which is Spybot's anti-spyware program.
Many major corporations install hitbox applications on your computer without your knowledge, to track various aspects of your internet activity. For example Lexmark remote technical support installs ehg-lexmark.hitbox.com on your computer when implementing a remote repair.
Use of these unseen "hitbox" tracking programs is considered unethical by many people in the web community. However, because most computer users are unaware of them (because they invisibly run in the background) very little is done to stop this practice.
Running a reputable spy-ware program is usually the only way to identify and remove a "hitbox" application from your computer.
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