None of it is a spyware. And ZA collects user information only with your approval when you install it. See, this is simple - ZA has an antispyware, and it needs to update the definitions. Those definitions contain the "signature" of the spyware for detection. Avast looks for signatures too in files, and when it finds them, it thinks its a spyware. Thats it. WMP, IE and XP do it, thats different.