When Lovers' Quarrels Go Hi-Tech
Surveillance Technology Increasingly Used for Personal Reasons, Experts Say
Technology Saves Companies Time, Money
U.S. Fleet Tracking supplies LiveViewGPS.com with some of its products and its president, Jerry Hunter, said business has multiplied by nearly a factor of two every month since he founded the company five years ago.
"We're the largest real-time tracking company in the world," he said. "Our products are used from everyone from electrical contractors to parents tracking teenagers and husbands tracking cheating wives."
This year, for the third consecutive time, U.S. Fleet Tracking monitored all team buses and VIP limos for the Super Bowl, he said.
By just looking at a computer screen, businesses can tell if their employees are where they are supposed to be and the technology has helped clients save time and cut fuel costs, he said.
Even a device no larger than a cell phone can allow another person to remotely monitor a car or truck's location in real time. Hunter said the system can be set to update locations once every one, five or 10 seconds and is accurate up to eight inches and a quarter of a mile per hour.
But he said that although most of their customers are businesses, they often fill orders for individuals eager to catch a cheating spouse.
Once, he said, his company received two orders from the same address on consecutive days. It turned out that both a husband and his wife suspected the other of cheating and unknowingly had two devices installed on the same car.
'StealthCams,' 'SpyHawks' and More
But other companies offer prying partners even more options.
An aspiring 007's dream, SpyAssociates.com markets everything from a "SpyHawk" real-time GPS tracking system and "StealthCam" alarm clock that hides a video camera, to a nearly $2,000 counter surveillance professional package.
"Greed, lust and fear are the three high-growth industries and this covers all three," said owner Jeffrey Jurist, adding that his clients include law enforcement, individuals, private investigators and corporations. "Everybody's watching everybody. It's just a matter of whether you're aware of it."
While the most popular items are currently GPS tracking systems and covert hidden cameras, he also sells listening devices and computer software that secretly saves keystrokes, Web site histories and e-mail messages.
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