People are assuming that there is more to this story than what has come out.
Let me ask a direct and simple question:
Is it spying if you stand out in the open and do it?
Yes it is still spying. I used to work for a company that made deliveries of different items. When I made deliveries, if there were invoices from competitors left out, I would write down the prices they were charging and take them back to my company. It was spying. I wasn’t hiding. I don’t think that has anything to do with the current investigation, though.