Internet users worried about spyware and adware are shunning specific Web sites, avoiding file-sharing networks, even switching browsers.
Many have also stopped opening e-mail attachments without first making sure they are safe, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a study.
"People are scaling back on some Internet activities," said Susannah Fox, the study's main author. "People are feeling less adventurous, less free to do whatever they want to do online."
Like no other Internet threat before it, spyware is getting people's attention, she said. "It maybe will bring more awareness of all kinds of security issues."
Linda Parra, a technology usability consultant at an insurance firm in Madison, Wisconsin, is typical of the once-burned, now-vigilant crowd.
Hit twice by spyware, after which all her Internet searches went to a rogue search engine rather than Google, she bought the safer Mac computer, installed two layers of firewalls and began switching off her broadband-connected machine when she's out.
"I've become a lot more security conscious," she said, adding that she had to learn much more about how computers and the Internet work.
Parra also banned her daughters, aged 12 and 14, from game sites.
"All it takes is one click ... and you can end up going somewhere you don't want to go and getting a little bonus pack (spyware) with your freebie," she said.
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