Company marketing departments have always been hungry for key information about their customers, and the Internet has facilitated such data gathering on an unprecedented scale. However, there are certain rules which have to be complied with as regards these activities for the collection and processing of data on website customers and visitors to those pages.

These rules guarantee the confidentiality of electronic messages and prohibit any form of interception of data by persons other than the intended recipient. The national parliaments have to determine the circumstances in which it is lawful to process this data, and they also provide that the personal data can only be collected for "explicit and legitimate" purposes.

There are certain steps, which must be taken when collecting personal data; these are discussed in this e-business issue.