Most days, Cindy Sciacca spends her free time at home baking, canning vegetables and finger-painting with her daughter. So why is this mild-mannered Mom buying a miniature video camera to install inside her mailbox? "If there's a terrorist living on my block," says the accountant assistant in Ukiah, Calif., "I'm sure not going to wait to hear about it on the news."
Close the curtains: Americans are taking surveillance to a whole new level. Driven by newfound suspicions following Sept. 11, a small but quickly growing number of freelance spies are installing gadgets that were unheard of in the home even a year or so ago -- and whose prices are surprisingly low. Those tiny earphones that Secret Service members use? They're on sale for about $60. Other companies are selling transmitters that track the whereabouts of the family car, gadgets that detect phone taps and video cameras thin enough to slide under doors. One company even offers a lie detector for the home.
In all, sales are up 30% to 60% since last year at spy-gear stores across the country, helping turn security and surveillance into a $5 billion industry. Los Angeles's Bolide International says it's sold 3,200 Spycams in the past two months -- double the number at this time last year. Counter Spy Shops, a chain that sells everything from $800 sew-on tracking devices to that $4,900 "portable truth machine," saw orders triple this fall. And SpyWorld, in Carson City, Nev., says sales of counterspy products -- they help you figure out if someone's watching you -- are up 20% since September.
Of course, all of these gadgets have strong detractors among private citizens and privacy experts. And while there are legal uses for these products, some also have applications that are against the law in many states. On a more practical level, some would-be James Bonds have discovered that the devices either don't work well, or that it's really not worth snooping in the first place. (That camera in Ms. Sciacca's mailbox that was supposed to flush out terrorists? It caught the neighbor's black Lab digging in her yard.)
Still, a growing number of buyers are giving these devices a try, if only because the drumbeat of upsetting news, from terrorism and anthrax to war, has heightened fears. "The paranoia levels right now are absolutely staggering," says Andrew Moe, owner of Spycam Surveillance Equipment in San Diego. In the past, people couldn't have responded this way; spy cameras, tiny recorders and night-vision goggles either hadn't been developed for home use or were prohibitively expensive. Now they're being snapped up by everyone from security-minded homeowners to mistrusting spouses. Parents are taking to them as much as any group to make sure their children are safe -- or at least doing what they're told.
The Backpack Chip
Among the hot sellers: a tiny $800 chip that slips into a backpack and transmits junior's whereabouts to a hand-held device back home. There's also The Ghost, a finger-size microphone that catches conversations clearly, even from inside a shirt pocket. And for the ultimate 007 experience, a company called Armortek International will outfit your car to lay down tacks, tear gas or oil slicks, or shock whoever touches the door. "We sell about 20 or 30 cars with all the bells and whistles each year," says Armortek owner Clint Murphy. (Most go to South America, he says, but a handful stay in the U.S.)
Mike O'Bannon's spy arsenal was far more modest. The Bakersfield, Calif., software salesman used KeyKatcher, a $59 device that tracks activity on a computer keyboard, to find out that his teenage son Matt was skipping school. (Matt had e-mailed a friend about his plans to spend second period in a city park.) "My son was a little surprised to see me at the park, too," Mr. O'Bannon says. "He still has no idea how I busted him."
Is all of this legal? Surprisingly, the government doesn't provide as much protection as you might think: Parents can track minor children, and videotaping in your own home, property or business is almost always legal -- even without the subject's knowledge, says Los Angeles privacy lawyer Scott Feldmann. How about recording phone conversations? Everyday folks can do it in 41 states -- as long as one of the parties knows the call is being recorded. (The strictest state: Massachusetts, where secretly recording a conversation can come with a $10,000 fine and a five-year prison term.)
Before the terrorist attacks, many states were working to beef up spying laws, but busy lawmakers have put much of that legislation on the back burner. For now, average citizens who dabble in covert surveillance are more likely to face civil lawsuits on other charges -- privacy violations, trespassing or even burglary. In one closely watched case a landlord in Bay Shore, N.Y., was arrested in November for allegedly planting a camera disguised as a smoke detector in a female tenant's bedroom. The charge: burglary. The landlord's lawyer denies any wrongdoing on his client's part.
We Just Sell It
As far as the busy spy shops are concerned, virtually every retailer has a policy that boils down to: We just sell the stuff. "Macy's sells knives," says Arielle Jamil, a general manager for Counter Spy Shops. "But you can't sue Macy's if somebody stabs you with it." Using surveillance devices without breaking the law, she says, is "the customer's responsibility."
Legal issues aside, sometimes the results are disappointing. Motion detectors can be set off by a rogue tricycle. Lie-detector experts say at-home tests are easy to fool. And you better hope your husband doesn't go to have his oil changed if you have a tracking device installed under his car. While most spy-gadget retailers and manufacturers concede that some devices require careful use, they defend their products. Besides, says Howard Goldman, whose company makes and sells under-the-car tracking systems, most mechanics "aren't observant enough to notice" the transmitters.
And of course, critics ranging from psychiatrists to privacy advocates say routine use of surveillance devices is paranoid, unhealthy and generally creepy. "It's not anywhere close to acceptable behavior in a civilized society," says Jeffrey Rosen, author of "The Unwanted Gaze" and a constitutional-law professor at George Washington University. "This orgy of voyeurism is hardly justified by fears about security."
So what do you do if you're afraid of being spied on? Well, there's always counterspying. Dwight Des Rosiers, a helicopter pilot in Anchorage, Alaska, bought a $35 software program that helps him scour government-agency databases for his name. "These days," he says, "the government is spying on us all."
And then there's Thomas Crowley, a bartender at New York's Bar 89 restaurant. He recently discovered that, with advancing technology making these devices cheaper and easier to hide, almost anything's possible in the spy game. There are even video cameras in neckties, like the one Mr. Crowley recently went shopping for ($500, in paisley). What will he do with it?
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he says.
Write to Brooks Barnes at brooks.barnes@wsj.com
