Are You a Spy? Am I?
Jan. 4, 2004 — -- You'd like to think you have privacy, but you know Big Brother is always watching -- and you probably realize Big Brother isn't alone. The real question might be how many people are spying on you.
Jennifer Garner returns as TV's favorite spy Wednesday in the season premiere of "Alias." But if high-tech espionage enthralls you, you don't need TV. Today, technology sold over the counter would impress -- or perhaps frighten -- even James Bond.
Here's a look at some of the latest in consumer spy technology for those of us eager to slip on a trench coat for some cloak-and-dagger games.
1.The TeddyCam
Talk about the bare truth: A new line of cuddly stuffed animals comes fitted with tiny cameras to allow parents to monitor their children. The TeddyCam, available for $99 from SmartHome.com, comes equipped with a small transmitter that sends a video signal to your TV or VCR.
Surveillance cameras disguised as smoke detectors, clock radios and stereo speakers are also available. For $14.95 a month, a busy working mom can monitor hidden cameras in her home through a computer at work -- or even a cell phone -- with a new service called "Mommy Track." It just goes to show you that Big Brother is no match for Big Mother.
2. The TeddyCam Buster
In the old days, you'd hear people ask, "Ever feel like someone's watching you?" In these times, it might be more reasonable to ask, "Ever feel like someone's not watching you?" The Spy Finder hidden camera detector is here to help close the prying eye of technology.
This $230, handheld device sends out a burst of ultra-bright lights that point out where a hidden camera might be located, according to SpyTechs.com. The last thing the person who's spying on you might see is you tearing the eyes out of his TeddyCam.
3. The Voice Pretender Phone Disguise
How do you stop an ex-lover from repeatedly dialing your number? The Pretender -- a $70 device that fits over any phone -- lets you disguise your voice so that you can deal with any creep.
Press one button, and a woman's voice will sound like a man's. Press another, and a gruff guy might sound like the woman of his dreams.
The Pretender, available on multiple Web sites, offers six different vocal settings. You also get four different background sound effects -- a crying baby, a smoke alarm, etc. -- to help you shuffle someone off the phone.
4. SpyCop Software
When you use a computer, you leave an electronic trail that your boss or your spouse might follow. There's a vast variety of snooping software that can be used to track every Web site you visit, every e-mail you send or receive, even your instant messages.
Of course, just because it's fairly easy to track computer usage, it doesn't mean someone's spying on you. But just to be sure, SpyCop.org's software will let you know if covert surveillance spy programs have been installed in your computer.
The $50 program scans your system for 400 different spying software programs. SpyCop's "Evidence Terminator" program seeks out potentially embarrassing and incriminating evidence. Are you sure you deleted those letters from your ex-lover? What about those raunchy unsolicited e-mails you keep getting at work?
6. Dial-A-Cheater
The cell phone is a cheating spouse's best friend. Have you noticed a suspicious telephone number that keeps popping up on your partner's phone bill? Of course, you're not around when those calls are made or received. But you can watch what happens when your sweetie thinks he's getting a call from that number.
Dial-A-Cheater, offered by ACME Telephonic of Wichita, Kan., allows users to control which telephone number comes up on another person's caller ID.
Once you sign up with the service, you set the time, you set the number and watch the suspected cheater's reaction when the phone rings -- and that certain number shows up on his caller ID. Will he play it cool or try to lie? Maybe it's all your imagination. But you may find out if your partner squirms when you casually ask, "Who was that on the phone?"
5. For-Your-Eyes-Only Pens
If you can't trust your computer or your telephone, how do you send secret messages? One suggestion: an ultraviolet pen. With ink that is visible only with a special light, you can fill a page with personal information and it will be blank to the naked eye.
A $9.95 UV pen from RKDM.com is equipped with UV ink and a special light on the other end to make your writing visible. The pen is not just for secret messages. It's a great way to mark your personal items and identify them if they're stolen. You can put your secret mark on everything you own, assuming someone doesn't walk off with your UV Pen before you get the chance.
6. Parabolic Ears
Here's a gift the ladies of "Desperate Housewives" would love -- a listening device strong enough to let you eavesdrop on your neighbors. Law enforcement officers have used parabolic microphones to put many criminals behind bars. And now the power of such technology can be yours.
Of course, it's illegal to use an item like the ASV-5 Long Range Amplified Shotgun Microphone to listen in on your neighbors' private conversations. That's why one Web site warns you that this $379 microphone "is not intended for use in receiving audio through windows, doors, or any other solid substance, or for the surreptitious interception of audio and should not be used as such as to do so would be unlawful."
7. Follow That Car
Is your teenager driving straight home from school? You don't want to follow him. But you can get a daily report on his where he goes, thanks to a little device hidden in your car.
The GPS Pro Scout Vehicle Tracker, available at SpyChest.com, attaches to the bottom of your car with powerful magnets and uses global positioning technology to track where your car has been. This $475 tracker operates on four AA batteries, yet it logs up to 18 days of driving, automatically turning on whenever the car is in motion.
When your kid comes home, you just take the device off the car, attach it to your computer, and you get a complete report. Of course, if the kid figures out what you've done, he can just pull the device off the car and leave it at the location where he would be if he were a good boy.
But these days, is anyone good?
Buck Wolf is entertainment producerat ABCNEWS.com. The Wolf Files ispublished Tuesdays.