Despite the implications of purchasing privacy, as well as a form of abode, when going to hotels, there has always been the fear of hidden cameras circulating the web amongst slightly more anxious travellers. With breathless news reports of discrete footage taken to be uploaded on porn websites as another means of gaining money with low cost, there are always ways to combat this, beginning with physical checks of the room, to protect our human right to privacy. This is particularly relevant to poorer countries (in comparison to the U.S.) where the precedence over maintenance has been undermined in favour for prioritising other more prominent crimes, such as fraud and homicide, travellers then would have to fend for themselves.
Checks to Prevent Invasion of Privacy
The most crucial element to a camera to keep in mind is that they must be placed strategically but also in correspondence to their primary function of capturing everything in their line of sight, requiring enough light and a source of power which they are attached to. Most commonly, they are placed in the nooks and crannies of everyday objects such as flower pots, powerpoints, and cracks in walls. Although they certainly can be mounted onto ceilings or hidden in vents, this usually is costly and takes too much effort.
Other than physically moving around and checking, a more straightforward method is perhaps, through using your phone’s flashlight. As all cameras have a lens which reflects off the light to some extent; by turning the lights off and using your phone’s flashlight to scan the surroundings, directing your phone at different angles, will allow light from any hidden cameras to be reflected back. Smartphone cameras also can detect infrared light in their rear-facing camera. Hence, when you put the phone in a selfie mode, it ensures that any bright lights captured may be from concealed cameras.