November 19, 2019

"Look for anything in your surroundings that appears disturbed, out of place or odd."

"Surveillance can be done by more than clunky nanny cams. It can be conducted with wireless microdevices, some as small as a postage stamp, that can be stashed in hard-to-spot places like inside clocks, light fixtures and air vents. Be wary of anything with an inexplicable hole in it, like a hole drilled into a hair-dryer mount in a hotel bathroom. And scrutinize any wires trailing out of something that’s not obviously electronic, like a desk, a bookcase or a plant.... [Turn] off the lights and [use] a flashlight to scan a room to see if the lens of a camera shines back at you. If you don’t have a flashlight, look around using the front-facing camera on your smartphone (the side you use for video chats), which may allow you to see the otherwise invisible infrared light that spy cameras emit.... [V]oyeurs may use spy gear that has its own hot spot for live streaming. So... check for other Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity that have a strong signal... 'For every one camera that’s been found, there have probably been a hundred cameras that haven’t been found'...."

From "A Paranoid Guide to Fighting the ‘Bugging Epidemic’/With surveillance gear cheaper and easier to use, security experts say checking your environment for cameras and microphones is not a crazy idea" (NYT, with a nice illustration (by Ariel Davis)).

If you're really paranoid, you can never get naked, use the toilet, or have sex anywhere other than in your own home. And worry about whether somebody has bugged your house. You won't be safe from spying until you die, and maybe not even then. I bet spycams planted by crazy voyeurs are inside some buried coffins.

49 comments:

John henry said...

If you're really paranoid, you can never get naked, use the toilet, or have sex anywhere


I agree with Kramer:"enjoy the show!"

John Henry

Laslo Spatula said...

"I bet spycams planted by crazy voyeurs are inside some buried coffins."

Is it wrong to want to watch your enemies slowly decompose?

I am Laslo.

iowan2 said...

Closet exhibitionist rejoice. We can't think of a single thing I fear others seeing. Blinds are for the protection of outsiders, not my protection.

Karen of Texas said...

Women usually get all freaked out about this and feel violated when it comes to light that it's happened. I find it just irritates the whizz out of me because people are just perverted creeps getting jollies for free. Or making money off it depending on what they do...

Usually the troubled and violated are younger women who haven't given birth. Seriously, have a contraction or two. Your hoohah is going to be hanging out for the world to see and you won't care. Of course, they may also be the same ones who film everything then want to have a viewing of precious Buffy's entry into the world at the next family get together.

These often are the same women who vote in cameras on every street light and red light in the world because they'll be safe now.

(I haven't had my hot cocoa yet this morning so I'm grumpy. Apologies.)

richlb said...

Tobias Fünke was on to something.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

You don't need a spy camera to watch Nancy Pelosi decompose. It's happening in public for everyone to see.

rhhardin said...

The xray glasses menace was the story of the 50s.

rhhardin said...

God sees you naked all the time. The cameras are just automation. God put them there.

LordSomber said...

On the flip side, if you're an exhibitionist you don't even have to leave the house.

rhhardin said...

Greeks used to sit in darkened rooms with a pinhole in the wall, and look at naked women upside down.

Speaking of cameras.

They were more into guys, though.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

This reminds me of that woman sportscaster who won millions of dollars from Marriott because some creeper managed to watch her walking around naked in her hotel room through the peephole. (I know that is not the same thing as spy cams.) I was thinking, big freaking deal. I mean, I'd cash the check too, but A. who wanders around their hotel room naked; isn't it normal to get out of the shower and get dressed in the bathroom as quickly as possible because hotel rooms are gross by their nature and oh God give me my barrier between myself and other people's germs PLEASE, and B. if she had never found out he was there (yes I realize he recorded her and was sharing it online) how would she ever have been harmed, and because that happened somewhere that has deep pockets she is now rich while people are victims of actual serious crime every day and they just have to live with it.

It's easier to like someone like Jennifer Lawrence who, when photos of her were leaked, said something like "Big deal. Enjoy my ass dimples, losers" than women who A. want to be looked at and admired but B. freak the hell out when it goes too far. I mean, calm down, on both ends of the spectrum.

Krumhorn said...

Spy cams inside a coffin are not going to make any useful contribution to the spank bank.

- Krumhorn

Rory said...

"[Turn] off the lights and [use] a flashlight to scan a room to see if the lens of a camera shines back at you."

It's also a good way to find your keys.

Howard said...

The MSM won't report it, but there's a silent bidding war between Facebook, Google and Amazon to take over the housekeeping and gardening companies in the US. This is why they support open borders so they can hire illegals to plant cameras and microphones at every home in America through the companies they are vying to control. Trump knows this and it's why he is risking his presidency to secure the southern border. This is what he'll be carved up on My Rushmore for.

Fernandinande said...

Do spy cams count as observers in the Copenhagen sense? Or does the cat remain in limbo until a human looks at the video?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Or......don't give a rip whether people might be spying on you in places that are public or semi public. You almost expect it in some areas. Act accordingly. Inside my house, though. That's another thing and why I refuse to have "smart devices". Alexa can just fuck off.

When I was young, I might have been flattered. There are plenty of naked photos of me from those old days. Pre internet. Maybe some are are the net now. Who cares?

At this stage of life, I might be weirded out a bit by someone wanting to look at nekkid "old" people in a hotel room. Or spy cameras of my "sunbathing" on our deck to see me reading a book or napping. Pretty damned boring. If someone gets a thrill watching me clip my toenails...weird!, but harmless to me. But again. Who cares. I'm not doing anything illegal or abnormal. Even if it were posted all over the internet. Meh. I'm retired. So what.

Probably my attitude is not usual, since I was raised by parents who were nudists. We spent much time, as kids, in resorts that catered to the "sunbathing" crowd. Naked swimming is the best! Then in the 60's and hippie dippy days, we just let it all hang out....so to speak ;-)

Krumhorn said...

I think a spy cam in a hotel room provides an unhelpful surplus of information. Who, while showering, hasn’t imagined some hottie in the same shower who was a precious guest? Maybe just the night before. The problem is that the lizard brain doesn’t shut off at that delicious thought. Suddenly, the more likely scenario is that the precious guest was some hairy fat Chuck fella or some older stout lady named Bertha. Nobody needs a camera to see THAT.

I once had a lengthy stay at a hotel where a well-known young singer had the room next to mine. One night, we were in the elevator together and she was with a very creepy oily- looking older guy. Her headboard clattered against the same wall as mine, and as he drove the point home he was making, I was hearing ...<< thunk! >>...”sing to me, baby”...<< thunk! >>...”sing to me, baby”...<< thunk! >>

Some images you cannot ever unsee. No cameras required. Her songs have never sounded the same since.

- Krumhorn

clint said...

Things that appear "disturbed, out of place or odd."

Like cell phones, apple watches, fitbits, televisions or cars?

*Insert obligatory Oxford Comma rant here.*

mockturtle said...

And stay far, far away from Airbnbs.

mockturtle said...

rhhardin observes: God sees you naked all the time. The cameras are just automation. God put them there.

Yeah, but God isn't going to post the videos on the internet.

Ann Althouse said...

"Who, while showering, hasn’t imagined some hottie in the same shower who was a precious guest? Maybe just the night before. The problem is that the lizard brain doesn’t shut off at that delicious thought. Suddenly, the more likely scenario is that the precious guest was some hairy fat Chuck fella or some older stout lady named Bertha."

You must have meant "previous guest," no? But "precious" is weird and funny.

I think most of us think about a disgusting person who might have been there before us (especially in the BED)... not a very attractive person that we're getting some transgressive excitement from nearly being in contact with.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Thinking about the previous guests in a hotel room.

We just got back from a 6 day trip to see a not well family member. We spent the first night in a nice hotel half way to our destination. We have stayed there often. Neat, clean, well appointed. Because the king room we had booked wasn't available we got an upgrade to a larger room. In suite bar, couches etc. very nice.

Ordinary stay. Sooooo... I get up the next morning, shower etc. And look in the mirror to put on my make up. I have a few tiny flecks of gold glitter on my face? WTF? Also on my chest and a few places on my arms. It won't come off. Glitter is evil. It takes forever to get it out. Looking at my husband he is glittery too!. "Hey!! Didn't we come back to the room right after dinner? Check out this! Did we have a party and I missed it?"

We got a good laugh about it, imagining that the people in the room before us, must have had a really good time.

The hotel apologized. No big deal. Housekeeping can't get that stuff up. I've had glitter from a kid's birthday party in my house months after the party, in places that the kids were not even allowed to go. Evil!

At our destination, we had to explain, to several people, why we had glitter on our faces. I think they believed us. Good times.

Anonymous said...

"Is it wrong to want to watch your enemies slowly decompose?'

One of the funniest people on the interwebs.

rcocean said...

I worry more about bacteria in strange bathrooms than spies.

Ann Althouse said...

What if the bacteria are conscious and thinking about how we look naked?

rehajm said...

Who, while showering, hasn’t imagined some hottie in the same shower who was a precious guest?

Checking in to a resort hotel the bellman made a big deal about the fact that Charlize Theron had checked out of THIS VERY ROOM earlier in the day! He said it in the can you believe it? fanboy celebrity way tinged with a heaping of the pervie spy cam way.

I did do a bit of a sweep of things...

MadisonMan said...

Showering doesn't remove glitter? I did not know that. (My experience with glitter is minimal).
The beauty of being past a certain age is that no one pays attention to you. So while there may be spyware in hotel rooms, they'll see me and say "Let's just wait 'til tomorrow when a more interesting guest checks in"

Wince said...

And still no nude Trump?

James K said...

Cameras still need light, so do it in the dark. Whatever “it” might be that you don’t want filmed.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Showering doesn't remove glitter? I did not know that

Who knows? Maybe the glitter was on the towels. Or the hair dryer stirred it up. We took it off with some cold cream later that night.

I did feel FABULOUS for a short while though :-D

bagoh20 said...

Your true character is how you act when you think nobody is watching.




bagoh20 said...

"What if the bacteria are conscious and thinking about how we look naked?"

Microbiologists are the most obsessed voyeurs.

JAORE said...

I bet spy cams planted by crazy voyeurs are inside some buried coffins.

Joining the six-feet-below club?
Hidden cameras don't worry me much. It would take a seriously sick person who thrills at the sight of my naked body. A demographic vanishingly small.

The exception being our two dogs. They can't get enough of the show that is me.

Birches said...

I've taken the attitude that I'm a nobody so if some rando films me naked, I'll never find out about it. So I don't care about hotel rooms and what not. If I were a celebrity, of course that would be different, because I likely would find out.

Of course, if someone I knew was filming me, that would be completely different as well.

Christy said...

DBQ, Sister has begun walking by other's unattended devices saying "Alexa, set an alarm for 3 AM."

bagoh20 said...

I've been told that God does this all the time.

mockturtle said...

DBQ, Sister has begun walking by other's unattended devices saying "Alexa, set an alarm for 3 AM."

LOLOL!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ Christy. Sister has begun walking by other's unattended devices saying "Alexa, set an alarm for 3 AM."

I think I really like your sister.

PM said...

And, for God's sake, don't wire your house with Nests.

n.n said...

2001? Alexa, stop listening to my conversations. Andrea... Google, you misinterpreted what I said, what you saw. Social butterflies in the Cloud. The voyeuristic, the profit, the blackmail potential, and a cancellation culture.

Krumhorn said...

You must have meant "previous guest," no? But "precious" is weird and funny.

Of course, you’re right. It was supposed to be “previous guest”. Fat thumbs on the iPad at 6AM.

- Krumhorn

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@Wince!!!

...no Kinks. my man??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WJ6FbcWYRU

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
The MSM won't report it, but there's a silent bidding war between Facebook, Google and Amazon to take over the housekeeping and gardening companies in the US.

Count on you to know all about this, Speedy Howie.

Sam L. said...

Too many of us have hired own own personal Stasi agents...

Earnest Prole said...

scrutinize any wires trailing out of something that’s not obviously electronic, like a plant

Surely this piece is satire mocking the Times' white, uptight, and not-so-bright female readers.

rcocean said...

James Bond had a gadget that instantly detected any surveillance cameras or mics in a room. People need to buy one of those.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

The Chinese will be up everyone's ass, and there's nothing we can do about it, just as Vonnegut depicted, or maybe predicted, in "Slapstick", only with a few minor changes in the details.

iowan2 said...

James Bond had a gadget that instantly detected any surveillance cameras or mics in a room. People need to buy one of those.

I see that at the bottom of an Amazon page. Where this gadget, often ordered in tandem with the saw that can create wholes in the the US boarder fence with Mexico, in just a matter of hours

mikee said...

Gene Hackman playing his sax in an apartment torn apart.
The Conversation, a movie which is ripe for a remake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8-i7lA5gic