But the fad is rapidly becoming a surveillance tool. One major national retail chain, he notes, has begun to install webcams in its stores, enabling executives at headquarters to see what's going on anywhere with a few keystrokes. Sleicher also markets a service called Kid-View. William Johnson, a Seattle-based security consultant and founder of the Business Espionage Control and Countermeasures Association, envisions a day not too far off when industrial spies, instead of hiding in the bushes with binoculars, may plant webcams with wireless modems. Then they'll log on to the Web and track corporate executives' arrivals and departures at headquarters, or glean the details of manufacturing processes inside a seemingly well-guarded plant.
People do with it whatever they want.