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.

 

 

Definition of Spy Stuff

There are several hundred retail and Internet spy stores selling a wide variety of Spy Stuff, which come in all sizes, shapes and functional reliability. Depending upon the application, you can buy Spy Stuff that will intercept room conversations, wiretap phone conversations or use a pin-hole lens to secretly watch someone.

There are numerous issues that someone thinking about buying a spy device needs to be aware of, and those are the legal issues surrounding the use of the device and its reliability. Before you buy Spy Stuff you should be aware that it is a felony to eavesdrop on someone without their knowledge. Depending upon which State or even country that if you live in, it might be legal for your to record your own conversations with someone because you are keeping the recording for documentation purposes. However, if all parties of conversation believe they are not being eavesdropped on then it is usually a felony to use Spy Stuff to do so. Depending on the type of Spy Stuff it may also be illegal to even own it.

Because of the legal restrictions placed on many retail spy shops and spy stores, much illegal Spy Stuff are sold over the Internet and mostly from locations based outside of the United States. Again, depending upon were you live, it may be a felony to even import an illegal Spy Stuff. Also, many foreign spy shops sale extremely unreliable spy devices. Because of the distance and expense of shipping, dealing with returns can be a problem.

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