Is spy software illegal?
No, there is nothing illegal about spy software itself. The vast majority of its developers are law-abiding people who create their programs exclusively for legitimate purposes. There are many situations when monitoring the computer activity is perfectly legal: the parents can use key loggers to protect their children from online abuse, the companies may use Internet monitoring software to ensure that their employees don’t misuse corporate Internet connection and so on. Of course some people can use the very same software for stealing passwords, credit card numbers or corporate secrets. However, even in this situation it’s not the software that breaks the law, but the person using it. There are also uses that are not strictly illegal, but have some moral ambiguity to them (for example, a computer activity monitor may be used to catch in the act a cheating spouse).
