Does Obtaining Private Information Constitute Stealing?

Question: I work in real estate brokerage. For the convenience of operations, my company's boss spends money to obtain homeowners' private information and phone numbers from property management companies or sales offices. In doing so, both the boss and those who sell the information have committed stealing. If the boss later assigns this stolen homeowner information to his employees to use, do the employees commit stealing? If an employee actively solicits information from home buyers and uses it, does that constitute stealing?

Answer: This matter depends on whether the bosses of the property management company and the sales office consent. If they do not consent, then even buying it with money constitutes stealing. It also depends on whether the home buyer is willing; if the buyer does not agree, then paying money to buy the buyer's phone information constitutes stealing. However, in matters like this, home-buying customers certainly do not care—having one more channel for purchasing a home benefits them. When the boss lets employees use the purchased information, the employees do not commit stealing, because it was not the employees who stole the information. If an employee obtains information by asking for it from home buyers and then uses it, this does not constitute stealing, because it was obtained by asking.