SOMEONE’S WATCHSPYCAMSING!
Hidden cameras are being found in hotel rooms, house rentals, cruise ships, and even airplane bathrooms, leaving many travellers to wonder: could anyone be watching me?
Spycams, as they’re called, are getting smaller, harder to find, and easier to buy… and if you look closely when residing in hotel rooms, you just might be able to find out that someone’s watching you.
From alarm clocks to air fresheners, water bottles and toothbrush holders, cameras come embedded in common household items that seamlessly blend with home decor. They can be purchased in shops or online, and through retailers, like Amazon and Walmart.
Rather than having to retrieve the camera to obtain the recording, owners can stream live images straight to their phones, says Pieter Tjia, CEO of a Singapore-based tech services company OMG Solutions. Even worse, voyeurs can sell the footage to porn sites, where it can be viewed thousands of times.
It’s no wonder why websites, from Youtube to Tiktok, are filled with videos of people recommending simple ways to find hidden cameras. But do these suggestions work?
HOW TO FIND OUT
Does your hotel or Airbnb have a hidden camera? There are many methods to detect them.
To find out, Tjia and his team hid 27 cameras in a home, and then provided CNBC with commonly recommended devices to find them.
In total, CNBC conducted five rounds of tests to see which method was the most effective.
TEST 1: Using the ‘naked eye’
Tjia’s colleague, Victor Loh, went from room to room, noting that nothing seemed out of place or suspicious. After 20 minutes of searching, he found one camera embedded inside a working clock - tipped off because the time was wrong.
“I found one,” he said. “But it’s so well camouflaged.”
TEST 2: Using a mobile phone
For this round, Victor downloaded a popular app called Fing, which scans Wi-fi networks for cameras. He also used his phone’s flashlight to make it easier to see camera lenses, a
common online recommendation. The app showed 22 devices were connected to the home’s Wi-fi, but no cameras.
Tjia explained that when members of his team set up the cameras in the house, they also set up a second wireless network. They then connected the hidden cameras to that network, bypassing the home’s main network.
“Even if we didn’t do this, the app would show cameras are in the house, but not where they are located,” he said.
Victor had better luck using his phone’s flashlight. With it, he found three more cameras - in a Wi-fi repeater, a shirt button, and a teddy bear - the last one, like the clock, catching his eye because of something amiss.
“It’s not grammatically correct,” he said of the bear’s Tshirt, before finding a camera behind one of its eyes.
Tjia said most hidden cameras are made in China, where,
ironically, they are banned.
TEST 3: : Using a radio frequency detector
With only four of 27 cameras located, it was time to turn to handheld devices designed to find hidden cameras - like a radio frequency detector which beeps when it’s close to a spycam. Those work when cameras are turned on and connected to Wi-fi, which means they won’t find cameras that use SD cards to store data, said Tjia. They are also prone to false alarms, he added, as the team watched Victor search the rooms, for the third time, through a barrage of piercing beeps.
The device also had a built-in lens detector, but the beeping proved so distracting that Victor didn’t locate a single camera with this device. It even beeped when he was in parts of the house that had no cameras at all, said Tjia.
TEST 4: Using a lens detector
Next up: a basic lens detector, which is cheap, portable and easy to use. The device emits infrared light, which reflects back from a camera lens as a red dot. The problem? You must be close to the camera for it to work.
Lens detectors are a popular way to locate spycams, but CNBC only found two cameras with this one. Despite its popularity online, Victor found only two cameras with this device - one in an essential oil diffuser, and the other in a Wi-fi mesh device.
TEST 5: Using an advanced lens detector
For the final test, Victor used a more sophisticated lens detector.
Resembling binoculars, it also accentuates light that is reflected from a camera lens. However, this device works from a distance, allowing Victor to see cameras from across the room. It also works in brightly-lit or dark rooms, said Tjia.
Victor located cameras in a tissue box and leather bag, with another buried between files under a desk. But he noted he needed to look straight into the lens to see it. The angle matters.
In total, he found 11 cameras with this device - more than all the other cameras found in the other test rounds, combined.
The final outcome
In total, Victor found 17 out of 27 cameras — not a bad result, but not a great one either, especially given the time he spent locating them.
“When you are travelling, you are really exhausted,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is spend an hour scrutinising every nook and cranny just to locate a camera.”
Social media posts about hidden cameras have increased nearly 400% in the past two years, according to the data company Sprout Social - with countless articles dedicated to finding a quick and easy solution to the growing problem.
In this cat-and-mouse game, however, the cameras have the upper hand, said Tjia, adding “The detecting devices are getting better, but so are the hidden cameras.”
The UK’S British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum will be returning 32 looted gold treasures to Ghana under a long-term loan agreement.
These pieces of court regalia include a ceremonial cap and a sword of state that were stolen from the royal palace in Kumasi by British troops during the AngloAsante wars of the late 19th century. A formal request for their return was first made 50 years ago, in 1974, and this call was renewed last year.
A more permanent restitution plan would not currently be possible under UK law. The long-term loan model is a controversial substitute, however, because these agreements perpetuate the idea that the UK rightfully owns the contested cultural objects in question and therefore has the right to loan them to their countries of origin. It is for this reason that the Greek government has repeatedly rejected the prospect of being loaned the Parthenon Marbles.
What sets this partnership apart is that it was formed not with Ghana’s government but with the Asante king - Otumfuo Osei Tutu II - who has a ceremonial role but is highly influential and revered within Ghana’s Ashanti region. He attended King Charles III’S coronation last year. The loaned objects will go on display at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, which reopens in April to commemorate 25 years of Osei Tutu II’S reign.
In a report by the BBC, the V&A’S director Tristram Hunt clarified that “the agreement is not restitution by the back door.” The UK’S National Heritage Act of 1983 prevents the V&A from transferring ownership of objects from its collection and the British Museum is similarly bound by the British Museum Act of 1963. Hunt did allow, however, that the latest deal struck with Osei Tutu II had managed to cut through the politics.
“It doesn’t solve the problem,” he added, “but it begins the conversation.”
Art historian Nana Oforiatta Ayim, who advises Ghana’s culture minister, told the BBC that items like these have spiritual importance and that this loan was a promising sign. “They are part of the soul of the nation,” she said. “It’s a piece of ourselves returning.”
“There is now a forward motion that is going to be hard to stop, and what this agreement does is buy time to sort some other mechanism out,” commented William Carruthers, a lecturer in Heritage Studies at the University of Essex. “It does also reveal that the national museums do have some form of agency here. Ultimately, I suspect there will need to be a change in UK law.”
A magnificent horned ceremonial cap, known as ‘denkyemkye’, made of antelope hide and covered in gold ornamentation is among 15 objects being loaned by the British Museum. The V&A is sending 17 objects, including a peace pipe that had a diplomatic function in maintaining strong relationships with neighbouring leaders. Further information about the 32 loaned objects and how they ended up in the V&A and British Museum’s collections can be found in a joint statement issued by the two institutions.
After it was revealed in August that over 15,000 objects had been stolen from the British Museum by one of its own senior curators, many countries came forward to demand the return of looted cultural artifacts. The thefts had remained undetected for years because many of the stolen items had never been catalogued by the British Museum, raising urgent questions about the safety of objects in the museum’s collection.