Hidden cameras are detected hotel rooms, house rentals, cruise shipsand even airplane bathroomsleaving many travelers wondering:
“Can a hidden camera be watching me?”
Spycams, as they are called, are getting smaller, harder to find and easier to buy.
From alarm clocks to air freshners, water bottles and toothbrush cases, cameras are built into common household items that blend seamlessly with home decor. They can be purchased in stores or online and through retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.
And instead of having to retrieve the camera to get the recording, owners can stream live images directly to their phones, said Pieter Tjia, CEO of the Singapore-based technology 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 websites, from YouTube to TikTok, are full of videos of people suggesting simple ways to find hidden cameras.
But do these suggestions work?
To find out, Tjia and his team hid 27 cameras in a house and then provided CNBC with commonly recommended devices to find them.
In total, CNBC ran five rounds of testing to see which method was the most effective.
Test 1: Using the “naked eye”
First, we examined the rooms using the easiest and cheapest method of all: the “naked eye” test.
My colleague, Victor Loh, went from room to room, noting that nothing looked out of place or suspicious. After 20 minutes of searching, he found a camera embedded inside a working clock — which was turned off because the time was wrong.
“I found one,” he said. “But it’s so well camouflaged.”
Cost: $0 | Cameras found: 1
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 lens to make it easier to see camera lenses, a common recommendation on the internet.
The app showed 22 devices 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 created a second wireless network. They then connected the hidden cameras to this network, bypassing the home’s main network.
“Even if we didn’t do that, the app would show that the cameras are in the house, but not where they are,” he said.
Victor had better luck using his phone’s flashlight. With that, he found three more cameras—on a Wi-Fi repeater, a shirt button, and a teddy bear—the last one, like clockwork, catching his eye because something was wrong.
“It’s not grammatically correct,” he said of the bear’s T-shirt, before finding a camera behind one of its eyes.
Tjia said most hidden cameras are made in China, where, ironically, they are banned.
Cost: $25/year for in-app subscription | Cameras found: 3
Test 3: Using a radio frequency detector
Having located only four of the 27 cameras, it’s time to turn to handheld devices designed to find hidden cameras — like radio frequency detector that emits a sound when near a spy camera.
These work when the cameras are turned on and connected to Wi-Fi, meaning they won’t find cameras that use SD cards to store data, Tjia said.
They’re also prone to false alarms, he added, as we 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 beep turned out to be so distracting that Victor didn’t detect a single camera with this device. It sounded even when it was in parts of the house that didn’t have cameras at all, Tjia said.
Cost: $100-$200 | Cameras found: 0
Test 4: Using a lens detector
Next up: a basic lens finder that’s cheap, portable, and easy to use. The device emits infrared light, which is reflected by the 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 spy cameras, but CNBC found only two cameras with it.
CNBC
Despite its popularity on the Internet, Victor found only two cameras with this device — one on an essential oil diffuser and the other on a Wi-Fi mesh device.
Cost: $50 | Cameras found: 2
Test 5: Using an advanced lens detector
For the final test, Victor used a more sophisticated lens detector.
Similar to binoculars, it also highlights the light reflected from a camera lens. However, this device works remotely, allowing Victor to see cameras from across the room. It also works in bright or dark rooms, Tjia said.
“Oh wow,” said Victor, as he spotted cameras – in a tissue and leather bag, along with another buried among files under a desk. But he noted that he had to look directly into the lens to see it. “The angle matters.”
In total, it found 11 cameras with this device — more than all the other cameras found in the other rounds of testing, combined.
Cost: $400 | Cameras found: 11
The end result
Overall, Victor found 17 of the 27 cameras — not a bad result, but not great either, especially given the time he spent tracking them down.
“When you’re traveling, you’re really exhausted,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is spend … an hour examining 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 data firm Sprout Social — with countless articles devoted to finding a quick and easy solution to the growing problem.
But in this game of cat and mouse, cameras have the upper hand, Tjia said.
Detection devices are getting better, but so are the cameras, he said.