Spying is done in secret in the sense that it isn't disclosed that information that the spy gains access to will be distributed to another party for their use,

Spying is done in secret in the sense that it isn't disclosed that information that the spy gains access to will be distributed to another party for their use, not necessarily in the sense that no one knows that the spy is obtaining access to the information. That seems to me to be consistent with what I'd imagine "overt" spyware would refer to—something users may be aware is collecting data, but which they aren't aware is selling that data to advertisers or whoever rather than just using it as needed for functionality.