Competitive intelligence has the potential to make or break a firm. Merely knowing what firm is working on, who they plan on targeting, how they intend to price it etc. gives you a profound advantage when competing against that firm since it then becomes possible to pre-empt their actions. Firms go to great lengths to protect this information and much of what you find about a company online and through business periodicals are things that they are sure cannot be used against them. To find things that cannot found through traditional channels some firms opt to go through a competing firm's trash, offering bribes to competing employees and having their own employees pose as a college students who interview the manager of a competing firm to ask about confidential information for a "project." Do you believe that these activities are ethical? Should these activities be made illegal? Would you personally participate in these activities (keep in mind, recent college grads that work for these firms are often asked to "interview" managers at competing companies...and the pay often isn't too bad)?