ABSTRACT
Globalisation intensifies competition. Cultural perceptions of what constitutes fair competition are also not identical all over the world. War is often spoken about in the business world when it is a matter of competition between companies. The discussion about spying on information turns up a large variety of terms which are not immediately understandable and not always used unequivocally: industrial espionage, economic espionage and spying on the competition are the most common terms. Typically economic espionage includes state actors, as opposed to industrial espionage and spying on the competition. Human intelligence (HUMINT) involves the acquisition of information from human sources. Apart from the intelligence service world, HUMINT also describes a major part of the work of journalists, qualitative market researchers and police and justice authorities. Competitive intelligence (CI) designates the systematic and permanent collection and analysis and also (internal) distribution of information on competitors and their products and services.
