I was shocked to see that keylogger programs advertise their product and can easily be purchased and downloaded making it easy to track someone else's every keystroke. It infuriates me that this is actually legal. Is it legal by the way? My question is this... can a keylogger be sent by email and load itself when the email is opened up? If a keylogger is on your computer will it sometimes say... "the memory cannot be read" when you are signing off? Some advertise that they are completely undetectable even with spyware blockers... is this true? I have tried to use spyware detection... but is so confusing when 150 things are detected and of course none of them say keylogger or spyware. When you get rid of those questionable items... your computer does not operate properly. Not sure what to do... please help!

Keylogging isn't illegal. There are laws against invading someone else's privacy that would extend to keylogging, but again, keylogging in and of itself is not illegal, especially when you install it on a computer that you have normal access rights to anyway.

Keylogging is a great idea when teaching kids responsibility on the computer. It lets you see what they are really using the computer for without immediately being in their face about it. Good parenting. I wouldn't give a youngster access to a home computer that wasn't in the main family room without something like this in place. Better safe than sorry.

Yes, hackers can use keylogging as a way to spy on you. The laws against hacking and invasion of privacy are meaningless to these people, so no use complaining about that. You have to protect yourself. No clicking on links in emails, ever. Not ever. Go to websites and search for yourself to get to things.

No, keyloggers do not advertise themselves in any meaningful way. It is doubtful you will be able to "figure out" what they are doing if they are really there unless the person who installed it admits to it and helps you remove it.

Well that was what I was afraid of. Maybe they have a useful purpose but unfortunately most users of keyloggers are not innocent parents but more likely devious privacy invaders. Okay... now that I got that out... I appreciate the info and I figured that I would not be able to fix the problem. What about taking my computer to an expert to clean it up... would that work? Thanks a bunch!

Oh and what about email... what if you do not click on a link in an email but just open an email sent by someone you know? Could someone send an email that is actually a keylogger? Sorry... I'm clueless.

Let's assume the following:

1) You have a good firewall on your computer. A decent free one is ZoneAlarm Free Firewall (http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html?part=dl-69168&subj=dl&tag=button).

2) You have a good AntiVirus on your computer. A very good free one that updates every day is AVG Free (http://free.avg.com/us-en/get-basic-protection).

For antivirus, you might want to consider the paid versions. For instance, I use AVG Pro and it includes so many extra features, including Email Scanner, LinkScanner, WebShield, AntiRootkit. I buy the multi-computer-multi-year package to get the best pricing and I don't have to worry about it for 3 years!

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With that, you've pretty much got the defenses you need in place to protect you from most of what might get you through an email.

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You can also consider switching web browsers from Internet Explorer to Mozilla FireFox. I made the switch a couple of years ago and am the better for it. Browsing experience pretty much the same with far fewer bugs and ways for people to get at you while browsing.