It's been coming up a lot, especially since the pandemic started. Sadly this isn't an extreme example.

Some in-office workers in US, usually unknowingly, have their desktop web cam and other monitoring tools recording them at all times. It's sad and disgusting to say the least.

Last employer did this without the status led turned on. They also recorded, keystrokes, push notifications attached to volume changes and media players, used sslstrip/mitm on web traffic, among other things.

Sadly, wouldn't be surprised if the same has carried over to remote.

This. I have worked at a number of US employers, and if a US employee sued over similar circumstances, they would almost certainly win (IANAL). There's a whole long process that you need to go through to fire someone, especially if the organization is medium to large, and far more serious sounding infractions have been found to be insufficient cause for firing. Given that he said he was already sharing his screen, it's hard to see why a webcam would be a legally defensible requirement, even in the U.S.

One big difference is the variability of the outcome in the U.S. You might get a result where such a firing is upheld, or you might get several million $ in punitive damages. Most companies don't care to roll the dice.

I recently did an interview with a German company, and they had the same requirement. They mentioned it early on, and it was probably the shortest interview I ever did.