[ChrisLomont]

From your links:

1st: title mentions they're used by attackers. First sentence: "Keystroke logging software is one of the oldest forms of malware. Under "definition" they state "One of the oldest forms of cyber threat, these keystroke loggers record the information you type into a website or application and send to back to a third party"

Why did you take your sentence out of context? Those above and below state keyloggers are used for criminal activity. The article is about keyloggers being malicious.

Second link: "Today, keyloggers are mainly used to steal user data relating to various online payment systems, and virus writers are constantly writing new keylogger Trojans for this very purpose."

Well, I guess that defines the common usage, hence the word "most". The article also states that "keyloggers have pushed phishing out of first place as the most-used method in the theft of confidential information". So not only are they mostly used for crime, they are the number one method for stealing confidential information.

And most every other link you posted also either defines them as malicious or points out that most uses are malicious.

So, by what metric you claim ". Yes, a keylogger need not be malicious. But so far you competently have made the case that the common meaning is most certainly malicious, and it's not even a close assessment.

So - what was your metric to claim "the common meaning of keylogger is not restricted to malicious software"? This list clearly supports that malicious use is by far the common meaning.

Please state your metric for "common meaning" then we'll test it. If you have no metric, we're done, since so far all the data points to your claim being false.

[hvdijk]

For the first link: here, you're either not actually reading or being blatantly dishonest. Either way, shame on you, and I'm not going to respond to anything else you write after this message. Feel free to reply to get the last word in. I'm not taking the sentence out of context, "Keyloggers are a type of monitoring software designed to record keystrokes made by a user." is the whole damn definition. The rest of what follows is what that definition actually means, and impressive how you then conveniently leave the "However, they also have legitimate uses within businesses to troubleshoot, improve user experience, or monitor employees. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies also uses keylogging for surveillance purposes." out of it.

For the rest, nobody, not myself, nor anyone else here, has suggested that keyloggers are not primarily used maliciously. Of course they are, we all know that. The whole question is whether it's possible for non-malicious keyloggers to also exist, or rephrased, whether the definition of keylogger inherently excludes anything non-malicious. You're only looking at what they refer to using that term, which will be almost exclusively malware, but that's not the point, you're not looking at how they're defining the term.

[ChrisLomont]

>For the first link: here, you're either not actually reading or being blatantly dishonest.

Here is your quote written to represent the link: "Keyloggers are a type of monitoring software designed to record keystrokes made by a user."

Here is that quote with the surrounding sentences:

"Keystroke logging software is one of the oldest forms of malware, dating back to typewriters. It's still popular and often used as part of larger cyber attacks. Keyloggers are a type of monitoring software designed to record keystrokes made by a user. One of the oldest forms of cyber threat, these keystroke loggers record the information you type into a website or application and send to back to a third party."

Now again tell me who is dishonest?

> they also have legitimate uses

No one disputed that. Your claim is the most common use of the term is not related to malware. Focus on the "most common" phrase you claimed - not the exceptional cases you're obsessing over.

Seems pretty clear the common usage is for malware, from this link, to web samples, to wiki and oxford definitions, to nearly every one of your links.

>nobody, not myself, nor anyone else here, has suggested that keyloggers are not primarily used maliciously

Also you

> "the common meaning of keylogger is not restricted to malicious software"

?

The argument is not whether a program called a keylogger has other uses than malware. The argument is your claim that the most common usage of the term is not the criminal one.

And since you don't have a metric to base your claim "the common meaning of keylogger is not restricted to malicious software" on, you're right. We're done - your claim is nonsense and you cannot provide how you arrived (incorrectly) at what the common meaning is.