IP: ISPI Clips 5.47: High-Tech Spying Gear Not Just For 007

From: "ama-gi ISPI" Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 5.47: High-Tech Spying Gear Not Just For 007 Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 00:37:06 -0700 To: ISPI Clips 5.47: High-Tech Spying Gear Not Just For 007 News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Friday October 16, 1998 ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: ABC News.com, October 7, 1998 http://www.abcnews.com Surveillance Tools Get Smarter, Smaller What the Watchers Use http://www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/spytech981007.html By Chris Stamper, spies@stamper.com ABCNEWS.com Are you being watched? Or listened to? High-tech spying gear is making surveillance easier as the equipment gets smaller. And it’s not restricted to Big Brother. The Searchcam allows for filming in tight corners.(Surveillance Systems) Bill DeArman, a senior special agent of the Customs Service, says that most privacy threats today come from gizmos bought in shopping malls, not obtained on the black market from KGB or Mossad defectors. A cheap disposable camera or a hand-held tape recorder can be as dangerous as the latest surveillance equipment. “People are looking for the ultimate gizmos, but the people who commit crimes aren’t necessarily high-tech,” DeArman says. What the Pros Use: But if it’s the high-end, expensive gear you want, that’s increasingly available to civilians. Pinhole video cameras, for example, can be hidden in an wide variety of household products. “You need a hole as small as 1/16 of an inch.” says Jeff Hall, vice president of Gadgets By Design, a Lansing, Mich.-based company that makes surveillance equipment. “We’ve put them in light fixtures, computers and VCRs.” A basic pinhole video cam costs $129, according to Hall. They’re called “pinhole” because they have extremely small lenses, not because they resemble the toys children make from oatmeal boxes. A wire runs from the tiny TV camera to a transmitter or a recording VCR. Hall’s company has hidden these cameras in hats, thermostats, wristwatches and smoke detectors. Most of the company’s sales come from businesses that want to keep track of their stock or watch their employees. “If you wanted to put a camcorder in the back room, it’s hard to do that inconspicuously,” he says. “We have to get smaller and smaller to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.” The Latest Fashion: A New York company called Electronic Security Products sells wearable cameras disguised as brooches, pens and eyeglasses. “They’re used for recording video one-on-one,” says company president Avi Gilor. A wire runs from the camera to a transmitter concealed in a pocket. If there’s no light to see by, then infrared can come in handy. Bakersfield, Calif.-based Search Systems sells the probelike Searchcam ($10,687) to law enforcement and rescue workers in tight corners. An infrared camera shaped like a long nightstick, the Searchcam is meant to be poked into small openings such as heat vents, doorways and windowsills. “Officers in a high-risk situation can extend their eyes and ears in places where they wouldn’t put their heads,” says Scott Park, president of Search Systems. Listen to Birds—Not People: U.S. law says little about video surveillance, so just about anyone can watch you without fear of prosecution. Audio surveillance, on the other hand, is regulated by the 1984 Omnibus Crime Control Act, and arrests and prosecutions for eavesdropping are not uncommon. Ronald Kimble, America’s biggest spy shop owner, is currently serving a five-month sentence after being busted in 1995 on 70 counts of dealing in illegal wiretapping equipment. Kimble spent 11 years as an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency before starting a chain of stores called The Spy Factory. Bugging devices, often hidden in household items, are confiscated daily at the border by Customs agents. The Customs Service says the law is too weak, however; criminals only face up to six months for each count of importing spy equipment. A camera could be hiding in what appears to be a thermostat. (Gadgets by Design) “The consensus of opinion is that technology has grown so rapidly, so quickly, that laws aren’t up to speed,” says agent DeArman. Often the legality of an item depends on its use. Parabolic microphones, for example, can be legally used for bird-watching or for professionally recording sports events. These devices, which look like small, hand-held satellite dishes, are 75 times more powerful than standard mikes and usually cost about $900. “A parabolic microphone, if it looks like a dish at a football game, is a legal device,” DeArman says “ If you disguise it as an umbrella to listen to what people have to say, then it’s illegal.” Copyright (c)1998 ABCNEWS --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. 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