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Comment by russfink | Hacker News Reader

Besides owners, what about creeps that rent a place then leave devices behind? This affects hotels as well. That's my big fear.

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Another option is to choose not to be afraid. If one really care, get good at sweeping a place for cameras & remove the fear. If one is too lazy to sweep for cameras (like me!), decide to accept there's a low, non-zero chance that I'll get taped and move on.

"You've got a tape of me? Congratulations! Send me a copy. It's a good thing there wasn't a camera covering all of the apartment. I had a little digestion shenanigans going on, I'm glad there's no evidence I am the one who left that floor. I tried to clean it up, but I didn't have any industrial chemicals."

This perspective is fine if you're by yourself, but what if you've got kids with you?

Not the parent commenter, but if I had kids with me I’d stay in a hotel.

It can be stressful enough traveling with children without having to worry about all the variables of an Airbnb stay.

Cameras have been found in hotels too.

Being secretly taped, esp in intimate moments, is a valid fear that many women have. It has long term repercussions on their life esp when the videos get shared.

I don't actively sweep rooms but I'd be lying if I didn't say I inspected something that looked out of place when staying with the family at hotels and rentals. When I am by myself, I am less paranoid about these issues.

This is absolutely a real issue, it's a problem with society and I'd love to see it change as it'd also help de-claw the terrible action that is revenge porn but until that happens... Yea, this.

a fear isn't made more urgent because a woman has it.

And, likewise, made no less urgent because a man doesn't have it.

No one said it was. It's a fear that men don't as often have (to the same degree) - that doesn't make it any more, _or any less_, urgent.

The implication was there though. I suspect that most men simply aren't vigilant about these issues, and so they don't fear it. I'm sure it would bother them too.

No. The implication was not there.

You also have it backwards.

Men don't fear it as much as women, so they aren't as vigilant.

No one said it does.

It wasn't even a point that was made. They simply mentioned women in their description.

It doesn't matter who fears it. It is a valid fear.

Let me rephrase it then, just because men _don't_ have a fear doesn't make it an invalid fear.

(and plenty of men do have that fear, but a lot that I know do not)

A picture of a male coworker naked doesn't elicit the same workplace issues that a picture of a female one does. That's unfortunate and I wish it weren't the case, but it is the case.

Definitely a valid fear. If I was airBnB-ing a place I'd def have to do a quick sweep for devices between tenants. With regard to hotels, I'm reminded of what happened to Erin Andrews[0], though that was targeted.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Andrews#Stalking_incident

It just occurred to me that there is a risk here for owners as well. A guest could install hidden cameras in a rental, then months later another guest might find them and would likely assume that the owner had installed them.

Agreed. A "guest" could target popular listings and hide a camera without the host knowing.

Don't worry, I'm sure the owners will catch them doing that via their own cameras.

Why do I get the feeling there is an underground market of sorts where people are paying to watch streams of hidden cameras in hotel rooms?

Whoops, don’t get any ideas now!

I'm pretty sure there's a reddit dedicated to logging into people's purely secured home webcams.

"In all, cameras are thought to have been installed in 42 rooms, across 30 hotels in 10 cities between November last year and this month. The suspects streamed 803 videos of people without their consent to a website with 4,000 members. "

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/21/18275530/south-korea-spyc...

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