A research validity issue and a work around
If you're going to publish a scientific paper, you need to give information on all of the significant methodology required to achieve the result.

It sounds like you are being asked to publish a paper that would be concealing vital information about its methods.  That may be legal, but it is clearly scientifically unethical, and reviewers in a quality venue would likely call you out on that failure.

If you're just doing the research for internal use (or informal publication, e.g., as a corporate technical whitepaper), then there is no expectation of methods disclosure, and there is no ethical barrier to being as vague as you like about your methodology.