Are there hidden cameras in your hotel room, Airbnb apartment, or rented cabin? No need to be paranoid in 2023 to ask the question. These cameras are more discreet than ever and these mishaps are regularly reported. Without being foolproof, here are some tips for sleeping soundly.
In May 2022, a former Montreal hockey lawyer and coach pleaded guilty to filming three teenagers in the bathroom whom he had invited to a chalet. Last May, Global News reported, a group of women found a hidden camera in the shower of an Airbnb near Vancouver, British Columbia.
These are just a few examples of the many cases traced in recent years. In 2019, a survey of 2,000 Americans commissioned by real estate firm IPX1031 found that 11% had found a hidden camera in their Airbnb.
“These cameras are sometimes difficult to find,” explains Leonid Grustniy on the blog of the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. The lens can be really small, 2 millimeters in diameter, and the housing is usually hidden or camouflaged. »
Alexandre Santos, owner of the Spytronic store in Montreal, knows a lot about this field, in which he has worked since 2004. The customer is welcomed from the first steps by an exhibition of innocuous objects: vases, remote controls, alarm clocks, clocks, smoke detectors and sprinklers. All have a small built-in camera that can record hours of video on a card or external device.
Less well known and which may seem paradoxical, Mr. Santos is also an expert in “counter-surveillance” to detect these cameras. It was actually this motivation that prompted him to open Spytronic, he claims. “I was the victim of a criminal act,” he said without saying more. My first idea was to protect the victims, to help the families and the victims to have tools to protect themselves from the villains. »
He cites the example of cases of mistreatment in CHSLDs, the numerous journalistic or police investigations that have used his equipment for a good cause. “We see ourselves as white knights using technology for good. »
What solutions does it offer to detect hidden cameras? Behind a glass display, we first find in large suitcases complex systems, reserved for professionals and whose cost can amount to several thousand dollars.
These are obviously not realistic solutions for ordinary mortals who want to inspect one or two parts per year, at most.
The most affordable lens detector costs $150: it’s model SPT-CSS-003 simply named “Camera Detector”. A more sophisticated model, the WEGA-i, sells for $550. Both are offered for rent for a week at a quarter of their price.
Both of these devices essentially work on the same principle: they emit infrared light reflected by the lenses of the hidden cameras, which can then be seen illuminated with red dots through a filter.
La Presse experienced the WEGA-i – there is obviously no shortage of hidden cameras in the Spytronic store – and could quite easily detect these tiny cameras embedded in mundane objects and betrayed by a small red dot.
These cameras can also be identified by their emissions with a radio frequency detector or a GPS tracker, devices that are generally more expensive.
For a smart inspection, it is first necessary to select the privileged places for the installation of hidden cameras, specifies Mr. Santos. “They are voyeurs. We agree that they will not point the camera at a door, but at the bed or in a bathroom. So you have to stand in the place that seems most at risk of being filmed and point your detector all around, slowly.
Like everything related to security, there is no foolproof method, specifies the owner of Spytronic. “It’s a game of cat and mouse, it’s complex. We find solutions to detect the cameras, it comes out that are not detectable. »
There is a free method on many websites to flush out cameras, using the capacity of some smart phones. Essentially, by dimming or completely turning off the lights in a room, you force the hidden camera to go into night vision – if it has that capability, obviously. It then emits an infrared light invisible to the naked eye, but which some phones can detect when they are in photography mode.
We tested with an iPhone 14 Pro Max, Pixel 7a, and OnePlus 7T: all three displayed the infrared beam from a remote control, even though it’s invisible to the naked eye.
“It works especially for older cameras,” says Santos. Now, they will sometimes use something other than infrared, for example a lidar. And you have to make sure that your phone really detects infrared. »
The other solution often proposed, but very imperfect, consists in scanning the WiFi network offered by your host. Fing, for example, is a free app that does this job. We then see all the connected devices, which could make it possible to detect a suspicious device, or even a camera whose name on the network would be revealing. Obviously, the camera must use this WiFi network and it must not be used by dozens of devices that cannot be identified.
The paid version of Fing can theoretically detect cameras. We tested it and it couldn’t spot our two Nest cameras at home.