"Eric, from Hong Kong, began watching secretly filmed videos as a teenager, attracted by how 'raw' the footage was.

'What drew me in is the fact that the people don't know they're being filmed,' says Eric, now in his 30s. 'I think traditional porn feels very staged, very fake.'"

Funny how he only cared about it when it happened to him.

>"Eric (not his real name) was no longer just a consumer of China's spy-cam porn industry, but a victim."

Maybe he learned something.

China gives me the impression that they would take these incidents seriously and punish the perpetrators. I can see how they deal with drug related crimes.

So I wonder what the authorities did here. Was this even reported to them?

It really depends on how widespread and who's involved into this, politicians, etc.. It's not unlike mafia that is punishing competitors but let 'friends' slide by if they pay their tax. There is plenty of corruption in China as well. The only difference is that when they punish someone it's often capital punishment.

How do people prevent this? I have yet to find a device or tool that would discover such hidden cameras.

A lot of spy cameras have an IR light that will be visible if viewed through your phone camera, so turning out the lights and doing a quick phone camera sweep can help.

I'm guessing this won't apply to all cameras though.

Phone cameras typically have IR filters that filter out that light. You need to modify the camera (or have an exceptionally cheap one?) to not have it filtered.

It used to be that the front/selfie camera would not have a filter.

> I have yet to find a device or tool that would discover such hidden cameras.

eh?

IR based camera lens detectors are available for < £10

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=camera+detector&ia=shopping&iax=sh...

I saw an documentation about this some time ago, unfortunatley there is no reliable consumer method hat detects a well hidden non IR based camera.

The popular in Korea anti-spy cameras/reflecting optical devices that find even pinhole camera lens. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQM298P6 But buy from somewhere other than Amazon. ;)

Explode a paint bomb in the center of the room that applies an even coat to everything. It’s the only way to be sure.

Explain? Not sure I can follow you here

It’s a joke inspired by Mr Bean: https://youtu.be/EiZoSuNej5U?si=wpOzf7C-X2NvhRDd. It would take care of any cameras but I doubt the owners would be too pleased!

it needs to draw power, so the ultimate way is to look for anything generating radio waves. there a few inductive methods to "listen" to electrical pulses near by, but you have to sweep every part of the room, take apart every source of EM. e.g.: light fixtures drawing power while turned off. same with wall sockets.

Spanish don't mess around in this matter. You have outright Prosegur or some other security company's cameras openly in your Booking/Airbnb apartment and a word of the host that "it's not recording". Creeps in Prosegur monitoring center getting to watch the action for free.

In 2002, I took a guide-led "Spring Tour" semi-off-season trip with some college friends. There was one sketchy, bougie colonial-era hotel near Shenzhen where the rooms came with young women "masseuses". (Eww.) I assumed there were cameras in the room and turned that down. The structure was old, kept up, and beyond opulent. Indoor and outdoor shooting ranges. Hedge maze. Bungalow-villas.

There and elsewhere, I learned why there were so many "karaoke" bars. Probably things have changed, I hope.

It would be very easy to do this in nearly any hotel that has no-click or simple click-through WiFi. A tiny box affixed to the back of the TV set, or someone opening up the clock radios that most Hotels still have and adding a camera and an ESP-32.

Hotels should look for devices that seem to stay on their wifi for a long time.

Of course, if it's profitable you can just use a cell modem and pay for the service and not be on the hotel WiFi

Someone capable of setting up tiny PCB camera will use data plan from a mobile network rather than a hotel WiFi.

Retroreflective and RF often miss them. Thermal gets them every time. No microcam runs at ambient temperature. The better Type-C phone attachment ones from HIKMICRO work.