While you are sure that you are safe, you can be watched. And this is not paranoia at all.
The service of short-term rental housing is an excellent solution for travel, business trips, parties, and dates. However, not everything is so cloudless. Apartment owners can give unpleasant surprises. There are cases of Luxury Wakes Up in the Airbnb to Find Hidden Cameras Watching Them when unscrupulous homeowners were watching tenants for surveillance using hidden cameras.
Intimate photos and videos shot in this way may well appear on the Web later. If this prospect scares you, then here are some tips on how to find devices for spying in rented apartments.
How to search the camera
Inspect the apartment with a flashlight
Arming a tourist is not necessary, and a smartphone flashlight will do. Wait for the night or twilight, turn off the electric lighting and point the flashlight at the walls and corners. Light is reflected from the camera lens. Where glitters - there is a potential source of danger.
Check bedside tables and wardrobes
Many cameras for surveillance are very tiny, but the fact that more, you need space. Attackers can place such devices in a closet, drilling a hole for viewing. Open all the boxes, look for items that look suspicious.
Take a closer look at the details
Cameras can hide and in plain sight, disguised as ordinary things, such as an alarm clock. If a device seems strange, contains parts not provided by the design, or there are holes in some objects, this is a cause for concern.
Pay attention to network connections
If the device sends data to the apartment owner via Wi-Fi, this will be detected by a special program that you can run from a laptop. This free script, written by developer Julian Oliver, will help you find cameras that work over Wi-Fi, and even stop data transfer.
However, there is no guarantee that with the help of this script you will detect the cameras that are located in your apartment, and not in the neighboring one. But paranoia will be played out for glory.
What to do if you still found a hidden camera
Immediately leave such an apartment. Demand money back. For example, if you rented a house through Airbnb, then you can. What rules does Airbnb have for electronic surveillance systems in the home? return the full cost of the booking.
In all services that allow finding housing both commercially and free of charge, there is a “karma” for participants. Try to spoil its landlord: put low marks and write a review, telling about his actions in public.
Write a complaint to the reservation service. Chances are that the landlord will be blocked so that the situation does not recur.
You may consider it necessary to go to the police, because other tenants may suffer from the actions of an unscrupulous host, and the footage is likely to be illegally distributed somewhere. If it happens in a foreign country and you are in it for a short time, keep in mind: the proceedings may be delayed