Although online marketing has created infinite possibilities for companies, it has also created many new areas of concern. As all companies took to the internet in an effort to capitalize upon the presence of tens of millions of potential customers, they placed themselves in positions that were vulnerable from attacks by nefarious individuals. Thus, one of the foremost concerns of all companies was to achieve online security, anonymous browsing, and brand protection via online privacy software. Once their security concerns were covered, companies were then able to focus on competitive analysis to help them gain an edge over competitors.

While competition is healthy for a capitalist economy, there seems to be a gray area when it comes to ethical strategy. As the competition online can be fierce a company cannot trust that each of their competitors will refrain from underhanded tactics that could be damaging. Therefore, there are a number of tools that allow companies to conduct competitive analysis, while monitoring their corporate privacy. Some of these tools include competitive analysis, anonymizers, web data mining, data scraping, and web scraping tools. The fact that the Federal Trade Commission considers tracking legal, does not mean that it is always ethical. Subsequently, by January of this year, around 28,000 web users have begun to utilize anti tracking software.

Although the internet has created revolutionary opportunities for every company with drive and ambition, it has also made companies vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals. As such, companies are continually searching for more reliable and efficient ways to protect their companies and brands. While there are several types of software and tools, like competitive analysis, that companies can utilize in an effort to maximize their system security, unsavory individuals will soon find ways to exploit the flaws in such tools and software. Thus, competitive analysis and online privacy software will need to evolve and improve, in order to remain a step ahead of those who do not have the best interests of their competitors in mind.