Have you rented Airbnb, Booking or Subittel type accommodation for a weekend or a vacation? Take time to inspect it to see if there is not a hidden camera to spy on you.
The sunny days are coming and the many holidays looming on the horizon are a great invitation to go and get some fresh air. You might as well take the opportunity to have a short weekend in a house or rental apartment offered on a platform like Airbnb, Booking or Sublitel! This can reject your ardor: the espionage and voyeurism affairs that arise regularly in the media.
Indeed, travelers complain of having discovered that the owner of the accommodation filmed them without their knowledge in their privacy using cameras hidden in spaces such as the bathroom or the bedroom. A voyeurism all the easier since these espionage cameras are nestled in all kinds of harmless devices (radioreveils, phone chargers, wireless speakers, smoke detectors, etc.) and that are found at very low prices online on online stores like Aliexpress or Amazon.
To avoid this phenomenon, Airbnb has imposed since 1er April 2024 The prohibition of any security camera in rentals, whether visible and indicated or not, and regardless of the part concerned. A reassuring measure but difficult to apply. Also, if you have doubts, there are tips to check that your rental is not under surveillance.
First reflex, immerse the suspect room in the dark and trigger the camera from your smartphone. Switch off the space and watch the presence of a fairly lively purple glow on the screen. Indeed, the cameras which have a motion sensor or which are capable of filming in the darkness emit an infrared beam invisible to the naked eye (such as the signal of a remote control), but that the sensor of a camera can detect. If such a light appears on the screen, it probably comes from a camera.
Another tip, use an app like Fing available on Android and iOS. It allows you to analyze the local Wi-Fi network and detect all devices connected to the network. If a spy camera films and retransmits the video live by the Internet, it will be unmasked. Unfortunately, this tip does not work if the camera is content to save the videos on a memory card that its owner later recovers.
If you detect a camera in your rental and have not been mentioned by the owner, immediately report the rental platform. A complaint at the police station or the gendarmerie for privacy is also recommended.