Tutorial How To Find Hidden Camera With Your Phone

Infrared cameras can be detected with a cell phone. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA – Be careful if you stay at a hotel or rented house. This is because the popularity of home rentals such as Airbnb and other informal rentals has coincided with an increase in the production of cheaper hidden cameras. This condition allows during your stay to be seen or recorded by the person who rents the place to you.

Want to make sure your privacy is respected? There are several ways you can do it, to find out if there are hidden cameras where you are staying.

Use your phone to find an IR-equipped camera

When the camera wants to capture motion or take photos in a dimly lit or dark room, it usually uses infrared (IR) light, which is invisible to the human eye. However, even if you can't see the IR light emitted by the camera, the sensor on your smartphone camera should be able to.

In some phones, only the front camera can capture IR light. But on other cameras like the Google Pixel 6, it will work on both the front and rear cameras.

If you want to give it a try, you should first check if and how your phone finds the IR signal by using the TV or another remote.

• Turn on your phone's camera and point it at the remote.
• Turn on the remote and look for a small, steady, or flashing light. It may appear as purplish pink, some may appear as purplish blue.

If you've tried it with the back camera and don't see a small light, try it with the front camera.

Now all you have to do to check for an IR equipped camera is to make the room as dark as possible so that if a camera is present, the IR will be triggered. Then slowly scan the room with your phone. If there's an active camera with IR lighting, you should be able to find it.

Check your network

If you're wondering if there are active cameras in your room and the IR trick isn't working, either because there aren't any cameras or the camera isn't IR equipped, then another way to find active devices is to check what else is connected to the local network.

There are a number of network analyzer apps out there that can find out what devices are connected to your local network. Could try an app called Fing which is available for Android and iOS, but some are useful.

This application can find and list all the devices that are on your network. The app can also let you confirm which devices you recognize so you can easily spot devices that shouldn't be there.

None of these tricks are foolproof, as they are the only possible methods for you to try. If you're really worried, you can go out and buy a radio frequency (RF) detector, which will pick up any signal coming from a hidden microphone or camera. This tutorial is quoted from The Verge.