it became intelligence by governments (mentioned ☝️☝️)
And described as Official, legal , authorized, legit .. that's the way of covering it.
And seasoned with things like prevention, national security.. so no one ask about what they do. And it's always for the benefit of few high ranked people and companies, but never for citizens.. (another topic)..
So civilian or military or whoever do it , it's always espionage with different costumes and flavor