Unauthorized use of non-public information addresses ethical considerations of the legal use of information that is neither in the public domain nor explicitly authorized by the owner or subject of the information. In other words, it deals with the ethical dilemma of receiving unsolicited information about people or organizations that would under normal circumstance likely be kept confidential under most circumstances, but may be divulged under special circumstances to trusted parties or those subject to contractual obligations. Typical examples include the use of competitive intelligence and personal information.

Here are some scenarios:

1. Competitor accidentally posts a confidential document on their public web stie. You find it before they discover their mistake. Should you use the information for competitive advantage? Moreover, do you have an ethical obligation to inform your competitor about the incident?
2. Your competitor has introduced software the competes directly with yours. Should you try to reverse engineer the software to determine how they overcame some particularly challenging technical challenges?
3. You find out through the grapevine that your company will be making a big announcement in the next day or so that will likely cause stock prices to change significantly. Should you try to profit from this insight?
4. You find a recording of a telephone conversation between your colleague and your boss that indicates they plan to leave the company and go to a competitor. What do you do?
5. You overhear a conversation that your manager will be let go in a week. What do you do?