Laptops are now ubiquitous as a business tool, as a quick glance around coffee shops - with WiFi facilities, of course - trains and airport lounges will confirm.
But they are also a serious business espionage risk, as growing numbers of private detectives and allied agencies are shoulder surfing business travellers to extract useful business information.
The role of private detectives has changed immensely in recent years, largely thanks to the use of technology to help them achieve their often illegal aims.
You need information? Don't go to Pinkertons, as, whilst their labour-intensive activities produce results, technology can slice through the costs and time required to get the inside track on your competitors.
Well, that's the theory. 3M, which produces the Vikuiti range of screen and privacy filters, was at the Business Travel Show in London in early February, showing off its latest filters.
Nick Hughes, business development manager for 3M's optical systems division, said that stories of yet another security lapse by company X are hitting the headlines far too often.
They demonstrate, he says, just how vulnerable people are to threats such as privacy invasion, identity theft and fraud, and how little is being done to protect commercially sensitive on-screen data.
Hughes says that a privacy filter is a simple yet essential security gadget that offers a greater sense of comfort for anyone using their laptop during business travel - whether they are working in WiFi-friendly airports, a hotel lobby, on an airplane, bus or train.
According to IDC research dating from March of last year, there are now around 2.4 million laptop users at risk from prying eyes.
What's more, says Hughes, 3M's research suggests that eight out of 10 of these users may have already become victims of shoulder surfing.
As you might expect, Hughes advises laptop users to fit a privacy filter on their machines to allow an unrestricted view for the user but prevent others positioned to the side or viewing over their shoulder from seeing what is on the screen.
On a recent trip from London to Doncaster, I noticed several dozen people on the East Coast Main Line train using laptops - and the free WiFi service in both first and standard class.
The number of MS-Excel spreadsheets on display was significant.
Perhaps it's time to install a privacy filter after all.
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Securing your data while travelling
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