THE BIG SNOOP MEANS BIG MONEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000102510001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 23, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
vr /1.3r11.1\ Cx ION
T.111 VN.1 n'TV rt?
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2013/12/19: CIA-RDP73-00475R000102510001-8
HUG 2 3 1966
1.)c.chengaged in snooping on so
mEr.,.y." This is the opening state-
inent of a series of three articles
on governinent-industrial-privat3
spying titled, "This Naked Socie-
ty. It begins on Page 30. ,
This Naked ("ocis4v
This is the first of three articles on the new,
lucrative business of snooping. Mr. Abram:30/y
I author of "The Barney Ross Story" and "A Childj
of Miracles," probed into the fast-developing
; ;industry and found most of those engaged in the:
work guile willing to discuss and describe their,
practices.
o
?
By MARTIN ABRAMSON
TO paraphrase Winston Churchill, never before
have so, many been engaged in snooping on so
many.
The boom currently accruing to purveyors of
civilian espionage stems from the mass invasion
of privacy that has suddenly become a way of
life in America.
One Congressman, Herbert ? Tenzer of
Lawrence, Long Island, N. Y., estimates the
staggering iannlicr of 2,500,000 people are now
engaged in probing other people and their
activities.
Rewards that obtain from such prying can be
considerable. Thus, the old-line William J. Burns
International Detective Agency has now hit an
annual volume of over $45 million. Pinkerton,
which runs the second biggest security business,
is beheved to be grossing near that figure altho
,it does nut give out public reports.
' Globe Security, Inc., has reached a $15 million
! annual volume and is being acquired by an
?
'engineering firm that regards security companies
as the hottest commodity on Wall Street.
mea s
?
The Government itself is a choice customer.
-Nat ? just the cm .and the National Security
Agency. A U.S. Senate sub-committee that has
been probing the probers has reported that the ,
Post-Office Department, the Internal Revenue I
Service, the FBI and the Food and Drug
Administration all , have been guilty of'
"improper" snooping tactics.
The busybody activities of Government units
and utilities, however, pale in comparison to the.
"Peeping Tom" antics of big business. ?
Thee minx nnialurization of the "bug possible
:so it can be slipped discreetly into an olive in
,a martini glass, -in, cuff-links, wrist watches,
sugar cubes. tie clasps, fountain pens, brassieres,
and bontionieres.
Ben Jamil, head of Continental Telephone.
Supply Co., the country's largest purveyor of
stranger-than-fiction eavesdropping 'devic e si
'exuberantly reports:
!
"Business keeps going up like a Coney Island:
!sky ride. If yen:re not bugging this year or being.
hugged yourself, you're just not 'in'!"
Caught up in today's competition, business
firms use espionage to collect trade secrets and
inf or m'a tion about ' new products and
!? simultaneously employ counterespionage to fend
' 'off the spies for the competition.
Bernard Spindel, who has been described as the
No. 1 freelance eavesdropper in the :United
! States, says that industrial espionage is growing
. at the rate of "thre,e times more each year than
the previous year." Naturally, business ? of
espionage (and counterespionage) agents like
Spindel grows in the same proportion.
Continental's headquarters are on West 46111-st',
in New York, but Mr. Jamil also has a store in.
Philadelphia and is setting up franchises all over
the country.
? Among this ? year's\ of ? devices ai'e t hese
intriguing items:
Course,
in the buttonhele, or as a cuff link or a lapel
!?? B.!-a!tt!.71)::!!!,ee,,;Tgiicicr,:ipltiooneor-,(-ynlittieghly sensitive, of
behind the tie
.....eii.L_FY(o):1?iinrtsafiloi.rpearimenrleic$1.204p.191051.1e.
This miniature
mike comes concealed in a dummy fountain pen,
and even when its visible, you can't tell it's a
microphone. Same price: $24.95.
is Postage-stamp transmitter ? so called
because ,it's scarcely bigger than a stamp. The
i world's smallest, broadcasting device, it can be
taped on a person, popped into a brassiere, or
'deposited in the most secretive place in a room
while it transmits conversations via wireless' to
an outside FM receiver. Its nickname in the:
trade is ? you guessed it ? "the' 007." Price
tag: $140.50.
The American's constitutional right of privacyl
' is supposedly guaranteed by the Fourth'
! Amendment, but this forbids only physical!
trespass, and the eavesdropping "hugs" are not
?. considered to be physical invaders. The Federal-
'Communications Commission recently adopted a
regulation barring use of tiny trapamitteraAo
secretly record conversations but this is purely
? an agency directive lacking the force of statutory,
? law. Few professional investigators expect it to'i
'In i the Washington area the yellow Classified j be enforced.
?
Directory of Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone- ! Our credit And charge account economy has
Co. has nearly five full pages of listings under provided a fresh bonanza for credit investigationi
! the heading "Detectives" and about half a page agencies. One company, the -Retail 'Credal
1
more under "Investigators." :Company, 'has 7100 investigators and maintains
files on 42 million Americans. Other private!
Many of the companies listed here openly :.agencies have files on a total of 60 million more.
. .
? advertise "Electronic Surveillance and
Detection, Discreet Use of relephoto and
? Electronic Equipment for Evidence" etc., . and
one company goes by the name oIn?
Nvhich of course isn't the gov n 8
supersecret Central Intelligence Agency. . ?
In addition to the publicly-listed companies,
hundreds of smaller investigative and detective
agencies are flourishing as never before.
New manufacturers and distributors of
smoopin,g gadgets . find themselves in clover
almost overnight and large, established
corporations ? like the Mosier Safe Co. have
started to make spy and counterspy equipment
as a profitable sideline.
91 "
? Cigarette-case transmitter ? slightly larger
than the 007, designed to fit into a cigarette case,
and able to transmit over a greater distance.
Trade nick name: ,"The 008." Tab: $150.
If those who are being investigated had a look . ? Continental Audio-Wall Probe ? knob-shaped
at some of the information in these records,: device equipped with a suction cup. Simply place
- !they'd ? be inclined to jump thru a plate-glass! it against the wall, put on your stethoscopic
window. Old-time probers tended to, be discreet, 1 earphones and listen to everything going on in !
:but the new ? breed asks all kinds of personal! the next room. Price: $65. -
, . . . !
, . . .,
!questions as they meander from neighbor to ,
:neighbor and local storekeeper to local . ? Whisper-Light Lamp. Send a lamp to
istorekeeper. ? someone as a gift and her (or his) bedroom or
1
parlor secrets will be yours forever. The lamp
! Other kinds of, investigators, hired to screen harbors a subminiature microphone which
. applicants, for jobs, will ask even more personal: transmits to a private receiving station.
lquestions about both the applicant and his wife. .: ? .
,i . It needs no batteries, tubes, or visible antenna.
The electronic tools, that have Provided the It will work even when the light is turned off,
,?basis for the snooping boom stem from the! indeed even when the bulb is removed, because
;invention of the transistor and the printed circuit?! it is the lamp itself that hides the transmitter.
. ..... .. . .. .... . .. .
Cmat rm.'?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/19: CIA-RDP73-00475R000102510001-8
?
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2013/12/19: CIA-RDP73-00475R000102510001-8
It can be incorporated into a picture frame if the ;
victim is the type that prefers pictures to lamps.
. It costs $150.
Q Telephone Tap Transmitter. Just fit it neatly
and snugly behind the mouthpiece of the phone.
Repk.ce the mouthpiece. ? Every word on, both
ends of a telephone Conversation will from that
? poiot on be transmitted to you' remote FM
'receiver. Only $200.
_
Since many of these devices have non-snooping
applications as well, such as in television
broadcasting and in sound amplification for stage
entertainers ? and since the manufacture and
? sale aren't illegal anyhow ? there are ?
Washington electronic equipment companies that
, deal in some of these items IL?. .
There are more, lots more. There are_ such
things as the thimble-sized telephone line-tap .
transmitter; the professional bug, especially good.:
for installation in furniture or automobile
,upholstery; the radar microphone that goes into
your automobile spotlight, bounces a band signal.
;off the windoWpane of one's house and reports
'what they're saying ioside; the ultimate phone
;bug which you install in a phone and will pick
up every sound in a .room if you simply call a
number attuned to this bug. It doesn't matter., -
'that the phone remains on the cradle and that
,ybu're calling from am miles away. You still
:hear. ?
,? Not only is there no law against manufacturing
'or selling any of these devices; in? most cases
there is also no law against using them in any
lway you see fit. ?
There is also, of course, the anti-bugging ?
'device.
"We sell a 'sweep' which, will defect and locate
hidden transmitters,' Mr. Jamil points out.
'"Then there's our Sentry 3.01 which will oscillate;
;When plugged into a phone that has a Wiretap ?
'which garbles any .wiretap that might. be on the;
. on it., We also have an excellent $250 jammer
phone, and we're developing a new device to jam
any mike, recorder, or transmitter hidden!
: anywhere in a room. Oh, We can 'give you',
protection all right."
? The Washington Daily News last Tuesday
, reported that .a Washing on firm was offering .?
, their anti-huzzing slanices to congressmen...
?
? TOMORROW; The polygraph (lie. detector) ?_
what it does and doesn't do.
?
AUG 2 265
Declassified in Part-Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2013/12/19: CIA-RDP73-00475R000102510001-8