Are you worried about being watched? Here’s how you use your phone to look for concealed cameras.
Have you ever had reason to be wary about a business partner or an employer? Do you have the feeling that someone is monitoring you, possibly with a hidden camera?
If you had a technique to detect the presence of a hidden camera, you could find out the truth. Fortunately, you can use your smartphone to locate hidden surveillance cameras with the help of apps.
Are you prepared to locate the hidden cameras?
You Are Being Watched
Someone is keeping an eye on you. In the post-Snowden era, this is pretty well indisputable. Digital monitoring of emails and phone records, on the other hand, is less frightening than someone watching your activities with a spy hidden camera.
It’s quite improbable that you’ve never been filmed in public before. Almost definitely, you’ve been captured on camera. You could have even been filmed from afar for a TV news broadcast.
It’s grown less surprising over time as we’ve become more receptive of closed-circuit cameras, security cameras, and other types of cameras. You’re probably not happy about it, but you can accept it as a necessary element of keeping society secure.
But what about in your own backyard? Are security cameras in the office, development room, toilets, and dressing rooms something you’re comfortable with? Or are these locations where you wouldn’t expect a camera to be tracking your every move?
You may find yourself being recorded without your knowledge if you are not made aware of such surveillance ahead of time. Your every step would be monitored, maybe critiqued, and possibly misread.
This incursion could be carried out with commercially available security cameras or custom-built ones. It might be a conventional camera for covert filming, or an old smartphone or tablet repurposed for covert surveillance.
Smartphones Can Detect Hidden Cameras
While it may appear to be a James Bond gadget, your smartphone may be used as a hidden cameras detector. To accomplish this, there are two main techniques.
- Electromagnetic field detection. Magnetic fields are detected by this type of software. However, you must have a rough notion of where the camera will be placed. If a strong field is detected, a camera is most likely hidden within the wall or object.
- Detecting light that has been reflected by a lens. While this method isn’t as reliable, it’s still good having an app like this, even if it’s just to find little objects that have been spilled on a carpet.
Finding Hidden Surveillance Cameras With a Smartphone
Regardless of the programme you use, you’ll be able to detect cameras, speakers, and even even concealed computers.
They all work in the same way: they show how close you are to a camera or other monitoring device. There should be enough information to give you a general notion of where it is located.
We tried the Hidden Camera Detector app on Android, for example. When the smartphone is in close contact to a camera, the app displays a red light after it has been launched. Use the direction of the red glow to determine the camera’s location.
The scanner will also illuminate when it is near other sorts of gear, but the results will be different. When a camera is discovered, a number shown in the middle of the screen will exceed 100.
Hidden Camera Detector also has an infrared mode for finding cameras that have escaped you thus far.
This is accomplished by aiming the smartphone camera at an area where a hidden camera could be found. A concealed camera is close by if your phone’s display shows a brilliant white disc.
Effective Detection of Cameras
It’s important to remember that before you use these apps, you should make sure you know what technology is in the room. Interfering hardware includes televisions, laptops, smart assistants (such as the Amazon Echo), and other devices.
It will, however, help if you hold the phone appropriately. You may believe that holding the device flat (as if it were a remote control) will provide better results. The location of the sensors on your phone will have an impact on this. With a little practise, you’ll be able to find the optimal angle.
Remove the phone from the case if you’re still having problems. Some case materials can interfere with the phone’s own radiation field as well as prevent communications from other devices. Removing the phone from the case for a few moments should offer you a speedier, more responsive phone.
Finding Hidden Surveillance Cameras With Dedicated Deices
Keep in mind that there are other options. If you have access to an infrared camera, for example, it should be able to detect a hidden camera, while low-cost wireless networking devices may appear in your home’s list of neighbouring Wi-Fi devices.
If you’re really worried, you could want to invest in some specialised detection hardware. This hidden camera bug detector, for example, can detect RF signals, magnetic fields, and infrared signals, and may be used to detect cameras and concealed microphones.
What to Do When You Find a Hidden Camera
It’s common knowledge that you’re being watched by a covert surveillance camera, ostensibly without your knowledge. But what are you going to do about it? You could always take it to a higher authority, but in the meanwhile, you might want to take precautions to avoid being spied on.
The difficulty with this, though, is that as soon as you do so, you risk alerting the observer to your realisation.
However, if you’re dead set on being seen, cover the lens with masking tape or adhesive putty, or conduct your affairs beyond the camera’s viewing angle. Staying out of sight for cameras positioned high up, in light bulbs or smoke alarms, can be tough.
Remember that a security camera might be used by anyone. Make sure your property is monitored by cameras 24 hours a day, seven days a week.