Smile, You're On Hidden Camera

Date: 15/01/2005
Source: Hispanic Magazine . com
Author: Kimberly García

Spy gadgets that once seemed available only to slicksters like James Bond are now within reach of the average Joe's wallet. The cost and size of hidden cameras has shrunk so much during the computer age that people are spying on everyone from suspicious employees and babysitters to cheating spouses and untrustworthy teenagers.

The pinhole size of cameras also allows people to hide the cameras anywhere and everywhere, from wristwatches to pens, pagers, smoke detectors, emergency exit signs, alarm clocks, plants, teddy bears, and lipstick.

"Spy cameras are definitely our No. 1 seller," says Ursula Lebana, owner of Spy Tech in Toronto, Canada. "The cameras have become so small that they will fit into anything. People bring us their own items—lamps, music boxes, humidifiers—and we install cameras in them. You could be on camera anywhere. If you're not doing anything wrong, then it should make you feel safer."

The price for a pin-hole camera that measures a half-inch by a half-inch has dropped from more than $500 nearly 10 years ago to $50 or less today. The reduction has made hidden cameras more affordable. Hidden cameras used to sell for more than $1,000 a decade ago. Now they go for several hundred dollars.

Lebana's most popular spy gadget is a miniature, wireless spy camera that sells for $395 and is available at www.spystuff.com. The best selling item at Covert Systems Group is a hidden camera in an alarm clock that sells for $295 and is available at www.spygadgets.com, according to Jon Marshall, president of the company in Katy, Texas, outside Houston.

Pam Udell, a mother of two boys in suburban Chicago, split the cost of a hidden camera with a friend five years ago to keep an eye on babysitters. Back then, the camera she hid in an air purifier cost $600. The camera was worth the investment. Udell witnessed on videotape two different babysitters treating her boys, then pre-schoolers, inappropriately. She let both of the sitters go.

"It's almost a necessity if your kids can't talk to you," Udell says. Hidden cameras also have caught babysitters giving children sleeping pills, leaving them in high chairs all day, striking children, and stealing from parents. In the work world, the cameras have helped employers discover employees who are stealing from them as well. Business people with internal theft problems are Lebana's biggest customers.

But not all hidden camera uses are so serious. Rock star Bon Jovi bought from Covert Systems Group a camera hidden in a baseball cap to record footage for a documentary on his band. In another case, a high school class in Maryland used a hidden camera to document the hatching of Brine shrimp on a space shuttle, Marshall says. Even though hidden cameras are the biggest selling spy gadget on the market today, companies offer plenty of other affordable devices. Tracking systems that gather data on a vehicle's exact location at all times sell for more than $300. The device relies on a Global Positioning System (GPS). People can use the data to record mileage for business purposes, to keep a watchful eye on a teenager's driving, or to locate a stolen vehicle.

Another handy spy gadget is software that sells for less than $100 to monitor how someone uses a computer. The E-Blaster Computer/Internet Monitoring Software reveals every website a person visits, every program he runs, every keystroke he types, even all the messages he receives. People use the program to monitor whether employees and children in particular are using their time wisely on a computer.

People who want to monitor someone's phone use can purchase a product like Spy Logger 10 for about $225. The device memorizes the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing calls, the date and time of all calls, and the name of callers. The device also records conversations. Getting paranoid yet? Might as well be aware of counterintelligence devices. There might be one that you will need in the future. If not, keep in mind that there are also such devices as hidden camera detectors that can reveal a spy gadget within a 2- to 10-foot range.

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