From Q to Amazon - How Electronic Eavesdropping Devices Reached the Public
Public awareness around covert surveillance, bugs, and spy devices began around 80 years ago, but the popularity of spy thrillers in movie theaters super-charged public interest.
In the early decades, people knew about cool spy gadgets, but few could afford them. The price and complexity were simply out of reach for most. However, technology continued to evolve and prices for electronics continued to decline. It was inevitable that sophisticated devices would make their way into the hands of everyday citizens.
As with many technologies, hobbyists and specialty companies began paving the way.
The Counter-Spy Shop
1978
The first Counter-Spy Shop opened in New York in 1978, but perhaps it’s most famous location was the K Street store in Washington, DC. The epicenter of spymasters in the United States, the DC Metro area is still home to all the three and four letter agency headquarters. Also located around the beltway? The government contractors who invented, engineered, or helped produce equipment for those agencies.
What made the Counter-Spy Shop stand out was that civilians, for the first time, could purchase the spy gadgets they seeing in movies and TV shows of the era. If the ’70s is the decade of public awareness around electronic surveillance, it was the ’80s that brought public availability.
While it’s true spy gadgets became publicly available, the cost for such novelties kept most equipment out of the regular person’s budget. The cost for a hidden camera that could be viewed remotely cost $25,000 in 1992. The expensive nature of the devices continued through well into the ’90’s.
The Internet
1998
As it did with so many areas of our lives, the Internet came along and blew open the availability of spy gadgets to the masses. Hobbyists, tinkerers, and speciality manufacturers could now market directly to people with specific technical needs.
Several early innovators entered the online marketplace to provide spy gear commercially. Spy Gadgets opened in 1998. SpyCentre‘s online presence opened in 1999. AuctionWeb launched in 1995 but would take on its new name, eBay, before the end of the decade.
By the early 2000s, nanny cams had become the most sought after covert device. One specialty vendor reported that nanny cams made up more than ninety percent of their spy camera sales. At the time, this solution was a transmitted and receiver pair, with the receiver connected to a VCR.
