Hotels And Guests Falling Prey To Tech Savvy Anonymous Voyeurs
by Heather Cassell
New high definition smaller cameras are empowering tech savvy peeping Toms to take advantage of unsuspecting travelers inside the privacy of their hotel rooms.
This week, Javier Antonio Martinez, 30, a Sheraton elite club member, was arrested on suspicion of secretly videotaping other hotel guests using high definition spy pen cameras at the Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma, reported ABC 7 News.
Javier, who works in a dean’s office at the University of California at Berkeley, was released on bail, but not before he admitted to Petaluma Police Lt. Tim Lyons that he “likes to watch people and is into voyeurism.”
Caught, he now faces charges of wire-tapping and illegally recording another person by using two very small, high definition cameras, reported the news station.
However, that’s not the end of the story. Police are combing through Javier’s computer and hard drives seized during the search of his room for other potential victims.
Just last week a woman sued Hilton Hotels and Resorts for secretly being videotaped allegedly by a hotel employee by a hidden camera in her shower inside her hotel room.
Unlike the Hilton victim who only discovered the video of her after it had been uploaded to a porn site and emailed to her by the alleged suspect, Javier was caught by Sheraton hotel management, according to ABC 7 News.
Camera lenses are extremely small these days, so small, that a family who volunteered to have their house bugged by Today, didn’t even notice a camera planted inside a plastic water bottle.
Back to your hotel room. There’s a certain expectation when you check into a hotel or a vacation rental that you have privacy inside your room and bathrooms. However, technology is giving peeping Tom’s new tools to fulfill their voyeurism desires raising the question: How can you protect yourself from being secretly spied on?
There are three ways to sweep your room to check for hidden cameras when you check-in.
Scanning For Radio Frequencies
Scanning for radio frequencies, in short RFs, can be done by purchasing an inexpensive handheld device that picks up radio waves. Most of these devices are under $100 and easily available at different retailers.
The downfall of this device is that it only sniffs out the hidden camera or recorder if it is actively sending a signal making it relatively useless, a security expert known only as The Monk told Smart Traveler.
Lens Detection
Lens detection is very effective but requires skill to use when sweeping a room. It needs the right angle, pace, and patience or you might miss what’s hidden right in front of you using your own light source. It might even give the peeper a bit of entertainment.
Physical Search
Possibly the most thorough method is a good old-fashioned physical search. Once again, it takes patience and access, said The Monk.
Access is the downside. It’s pretty certain that a hotel won’t take too kindly to guests prying open smoke detectors, cutting open the back of paintings, or taking a sledgehammer to open a wall to check to see if anything is inside it beyond plaster. The inability to do these things means the search will be incomplete.
The Monk suggested using a hybrid of all three methods due to the limitations of each search method.
They aren’t 100 percent foolproof individually or when used together, but they will help you sleep better knowing you did your best to protect your privacy.
How To Look For Hidden Cameras
Put yourself into the mind of the peeper. Where would you place hidden cameras if you wanted to spy on someone? What’s not quite in its place. Is there something that isn’t logically where it should be or oddly positioned?
Do you know what a hidden camera looks like? Do a little homework to know the shocking possibilities of what might be being used to spy on you.
You Found One. Now What?
Report it to the hotel or rental company. Find out what the hotel or vacation rental’s policies regarding hidden cameras.
Cover the items with a towel or turn the item where it’s filming something uninteresting like a wall. Muffle the sound somehow.
When To Expect To Be Spied On
It should be obvious, but China and Russia are looking in on you and you can’t do anything about it when you are on their turf. If you do start sweeping a room and remove anything, you might be branded as a hostile intelligence agent and treated as such, The Monk told Smart Travel.
Book your next vacation with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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