South Korea is in the grip of a spycam epidemic, with covert footage of sex, nudity and urination posted online in what amounts to a "social death penalty" for thousands of women forced to live with a pornographic shadow.

The footage may be taken surreptitiously by boyfriends or captured on covert devices as small as car keys. Daily camera checks are now part of life for cleaners in many public toilets.

The spy camera phenomenon has reached such epidemic proportions in tech-savvy South Korea that tens of thousands of women have taken to the streets to march for action.