A Growing Problem..

Industrial espionage or corporate espionage is espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of national security purposes.

The term is distinct from legal and ethical activities such as examining corporate publications, websites, patent filings, and the like to determine the activities of a corporation (this is normally referred to as competitive intelligence). Theoretically the difference between espionage and legal information gathering is clear. In practice, it is quite difficult to sometimes tell the difference between legal and illegal methods. Especially if one starts to consider the ethical side of information gathering, the border becomes even more blurred and elusive of definition.

Industrial espionage describes activities such as theft of trade secrets, bribery, blackmail, and technological surveillance. As well as spying on commercial organizations, governments can also be targets of commercial espionage—for example, to determine the terms of a tender for a government contract so that another tenderer can underbid.

Industrial espionage is most commonly associated with technology-heavy industries, particularly the computer and automobile sectors.

Espionage takes place in many forms. In short, the purpose of espionage is to gather knowledge about (an) organization(s). A spy may be hired, or may work for oneself.

 

 

Surveillance

When most people think about Surveillance they usually are referring to electronic eavesdropping or video Surveillance. There is much written about legal video Surveillance cameras, but much less about covert video Surveillance and eavesdropping, which is mostly illegal. The courts around the world have been forced to deal the legality of Surveillance and the rights of their citizens.

Many believe that it is completely legal to watch hidden video camera of people regardless of their expectation of privacy. However the courts in the US have made several rulings to the contrary. Therefore, most retail establishment post notices that their facilities are being monitored by video cameras.

Also, many believe that it is completely legal to listen to someone’s private conversations regardless of their expectation of privacy. Many US courts have ruled that just because someone controls or pays for a telephone line that they do not have the right to secretly record all conversations on that line. Many of these ruling have involved the eavesdropping on spouses and children. It is important to point out here that just because a child may be a minor, it does not mean he has no constitutional rights.

You should talk to professional legal counsel before recording or monitoring anyone via video or some type of eavesdropping Surveillance device.

For a complete glossary of terms relevant to Surveillance please click here.