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Comment by spideymans | Hacker News Reader

Okay HN nerds: what’s the best way to go about sniffing out these hidden cams?

There was a recent BBC video[1] where Stacey Dooley visited South Korea and engaged with police experts there who search for hidden cameras as part of a huge 'peeping-tom'-type problem they have with surveillance (primarily of women) for the purpose of pornography. I concluded from that video that I couldn't really on my technical expertise and a thorough physical search to find a hidden camera. Unless I had something that could detect GSM radios or something of the sort.

[1]: https://youtu.be/ggYIsnUgUdU

You could probably use an SDR to find transmitting wireless devices.

Non-Linear Junction Detector.

https://hackaday.com/2017/09/20/spy-tech-nonlinear-junction-...

the math/physics behind how this works is fascinating, however, NLJDs are expensive, slow and require specialized electronics skills that the average person doesnt have. NLJD is what Military/Intelligence use to sweep a room for bugs.

but at end of the day, it's an arms race where the only way to win is not to play. if it became easy to detect circuits hidden in the walls or in household objects, they can just escalate to tactics like when the KGB used special screws in the beams of the US embassy in Moscow to record ambient audio of the keys pressed on teletypes to recover the messages. then there's the viral video from a few year back demonstrating recovering audio inside a room with a camera aimed through a glass window pane at a foil bag of chips. the same techniques that recover audio also work for video. it's just a signal to reconstruct.

Cameras with night vision mode often have an infrared LED that you can see with most phones front camera.

I believe this trick doesn't work with iPhones, since the lens has a filter that blocks infrared light.

Well the ones that stream live should be detectable by either sniffing wifi traffic or tracing the Ethernet cables. If they're not battery powered they should also be plugged in the mains somewhere, but not sure how you'd find them easily.

If they're battery powered and record to internal memory then you'd probably need to spot them directly.

don’t stay in an Airbnb

This.

If you want to shower in a place, but have to find the hidden cameras prior to taking your shower? I think that's a pretty good sign that you probably shouldn't be showering in that place.

If you think hotels are immune you’re wrong. Any room can have hidden cameras.

That may be true [1], but for a hotel operator the risk is really high and the reward really low: if someone finds a camera in your hotel room you risk losing your license, your investment (hotels aren't cheap), and you risk the city wanting to make an example out of you. You also need the rest of the hotel personnel not to notice. It's really not worth it.

An unlicensed operator running an operation alone from their literal living room doesn't have as much to lose. They might also not think ahead as much, since there is a lot less friction from idea to your first guest.

[1] I don't have stats in hidden cameras in hotels, though, but I would bet that hidden cameras are possible but not likely. At least for "decent" ones.

Your eyes and a bright flashlight? Any hidden camera will need a translucent window with a lens behind it, and they're not that hard to spot once you know what you're looking for.

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