Ethics in Competitive Intelligence - YouTube

hello class of adm 3316 my name is Marysia and in  today's presentation my team and i will discuss  

ethics when it comes to competitive intelligence  the agenda for the presentation will go as follows  

first vanessa and mitchell will discuss  different methods of ethical data collection  

then lauren and rakhi will go into the different  laws that govern competitive intelligence and  

finally i will talk about the privacy and  security considerations when it comes to ci

so to start off we will discuss  ethical methods of data collection  

as far as data collection is concerned there are  many extremely valuable sources of data available  

to ci professionals this includes interviews  surveys focus groups online secondary research  

web scraping online databases and much more  however the extensive collection and use of data  

in our modern world can cause ethical dilemmas  particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive  

or confidential information from individuals and  organizations therefore when using these data  

sources it is important for ci professionals  to ensure that data is being collected and  

used in an ethical manner it should be  noted though that most data collection  

methods themselves are not unethical and under the  right conditions most data collection techniques  

will yield great results without causing any  kind of harm however it is the kind it is the  

way that these data collection techniques are  actually used which can cause ethical issues

yes in order to ensure ethical data collection we  created a list of data collection do's and do not  

that ci agents can apply ethical principles to  data collection regardless of technique that is  

being used so to begin with the dues do explicitly  explain who you are what your organization  

represents and the reason why you're collecting  data this allows those who are providing you with  

data or information to determine whether it's  in their best interest to participate do you  

obtain full content from individuals sharing  information with you it is important that you  

do not use information that you collected prior to  obtaining consent from the source otherwise you'll  

be misrepresenting the facts do understand the  potential harm stemming from the collection and  

use of the data asking questions such as who  will have access to this data and could this  

data be interpreted and used in ways that other  than what i communicated with the source can help  

identify the potential harm and risk and prevent  them do take necessary precautions to remove bias  

from data collection and analysis as this could  lead to misleading results for example biases  

can be removed from data collection by avoiding  by search engine settings and preferences asking  

clear questions and ensuring that the population  type and the size used for data collection are  

appropriate that do not include do not include  personal identifiers and data collection if  

unnecessary before using personal identifiers and  data collection stop and ask yourself do i really  

need to add personal identifiers in my data do  personal identifiers add any value to my data do i  

need to follow up with the respondents if personal  identifiers aren't necessary based on these  

questions you should most likely omit them from  your results do not store sensitive information  

include in locations that are publicly accessible  or easily compromised these this includes  

information that can be considered sensitive  by either an individual or an organization  

do not accept information that was collected  or shared with you through unethical means for  

example if an individual from a competing company  came to you with valuable internal information  

you should refuse it as the company did not  provide you with the permission or access to this  

information do not attempt to deceive informants  or hide what you or your company will be using  

the data for it this leads to misleading results  for you and loss of faith from the participants

we'll now move on to some of the laws that govern  competitive intelligence so when discussing the  

laws that govern competitive intelligence one  first needs to differentiate between competitive  

intelligence and espionage one of which is an  illegal activity and the other of which is legal  

so competitive intelligence refers to the  gathering analyzing and use of information  

collected on stakeholders such as competitors  and customers as well as other market factors  

that contribute to a business's competitive  advantage in contrast espionage refers to  

the illegal and unethical theft of business trade  secrets so an example of competitive intelligence  

might be conducting research at a trade show  while on the other hand an example of espionage  

might be trespassing on a competitor's property  or snooping through someone's compute computer  

um so next now that you know what espionage  is and that it's illegal you might wonder  

what are some of the laws related to governing  espionage so espionage relates to trade secrets  

which are a form of intellectual property and  lauren will be going more into this shortly  

unlike the united states which has both federal  and state trade legislation in canada trade  

secret rights are not protected under statute  or through any formal registration process  

there is an act that protects against  economic espionage which is a nationwide thing  

so this was updated last in 2001 and this act  prohibits the use of trade secret for the benefit  

of a foreign economic entity as mentioned though  there is no set law or act relating to corporate  

espionage in canada and rather trade secrets  are protected through contract or by tort where  

a duty of confidence or fiduciary duties owed  by a recipient to a disclosure of confidential  

business information in this case misappropriation  of confidential information can lead to criminal  

sanctions for fraud now we'll go into a little  more detail about the security of information act  

so as a part of this you are guilty if um of an  offense if at the direction of or for the benefit  

of a foreign economic entity you either a  communicate a trade secret to another person  

group or organization or b obtain retain alter or  destroy a trade secret if found guilty one can be  

imprisoned for up to 10 years and i'll pass it  over to lauren to talk more about trade secrets  

a trade secret can be any business information  that derives its value from secrecy  

methods processes formulas recipes and devices are  only few examples of things that can be protected  

by a trade secret trade secrets are not  registered with any government authorities  

but can be maintained indefinitely provided that  the trade secrets are kept confidential this is  

typically done through a combination of physical  technological and legal means these methods can  

include non-disclosure agreements a locked door  password protection encryptions or confidentiality  

clause in an employment agreement it's not only  unethical to misuse or expose this information  

it can be illegal in canada it's an offense to  knowingly obtain a trade secret or communicate or  

make available trade secret by a deceit falsehood  or other fraudulent means if found guilty one may  

be liable to imprisonment for up to 14 years now  leads us to security consideration in competitive  

intelligence as previously mentioned competitive  intelligence is completely legal if done ethically  

however there has been and still is concerned  for when it comes to privacy and security  

protecting the privacy of a business can be  seen as a competitive advantage not only does  

caring for the privacy of both your business and  consumer data increase customer loyalty but it  

also enables customers to build trust within that  company in terms of competitive intelligence which  

is in essence a way to gather information from  competitors in a non-interfering and subtle manner  

giving some sort of access to competitors  to get their hands on this information  

could be a disadvantage when looking at  it from an individual business perspective  

as a result many business undergo what is  called counter competitive intelligence  

this process goes hand in hand with protecting  viable information that could be used by  

competitors to gain competitive advantage counter  competitive intelligence starts with i starts  

with identifying vulnerabilities in the business  starting with operational vulnerabilities such as  

social engineering and unchecked internet  usage next the business can look at the  

physical vulnerabilities such as the lack of  computer passwords and easy building access  

then there are personnel vulnerabilities such as  not doing proper background checks on new hires  

and susceptibility to crime the last vulnerability  is technical such as bugs in a system and easily  

broken passwords counter-competitive intelligence  then acts as either an active or passive tool  

uh to avoid and fix these vulnerabilities to  the business that would be easily accessed by  

competitors in either an ethical or unethical way  passive counter competitive intelligence would use  

defense tactics that go along the lines of finding  software solutions practicing counter surveillance  

and penetration testing to find weaknesses  active counter competitive intelligence uses more  

offensive tactics to investigate any potential  illegal and unethical threatening activities  

this also goes hand in hand with risk management  which acts as a safeguard to protect against  

security threats and changes so what privacy  measures can do can a business take as a  

preventative measure first training employees is  crucial security education raises their awareness  

and helps straighten their situational awareness  of hacking and or of corporate espionage another  

measure to protect privacy and ensure  security is encryption specifically a  

company-wide single key encryption to secure  information finally requiring third parties and  

executive employees to sign non-disclosure  agreements or ndas can also help minimize  

external disclosure of confidential business  information that could be used by competitors

congratulations as a ci professional you now  understand the basics of ethics and competitive  

intelligence and can you see the importance of  these ethical principles have in your own work  

as you continue your work as a ci professional be  

sure to integrate the principles of  ethical methods and data collection  

the laws that govern competitive  intelligence and privacy considerations  

thank you for your time and please leave any  comments or questions in the comment section below