Temporary or holiday accommodation may also pose a risk to guests’ privacy and security. Apartments and rooms available on platforms such as Airbnb and even hostels and hotels may include hidden cameras, which is not common, but there is a risk or possibility. This is a problem that is increasingly being reported on social media and on the platforms themselves.
There are some basic methods to detect these spy cameras using our mobile, but Xiaomi wanted to go further. The Asian company has developed a function that allows you to find hidden cameras using your mobile phone, and its operation is really promising.
Xiaomi phones will scan for suspicious devices to detect spy cameras
Spy cameras can be hidden in certain corners of a room that would not normally arouse suspicion, for example in wall sockets, in a table clock, in smoke detectors or behind mirrors, among other places. One of the most common ways to find this type of camera is to use your cell phone’s flashlight (or flash), or even your smartphone’s camera.
But Xiaomi will implement a smarter system dedicated to finding these cameras. The Asian company’s solution is based on analyzing the room and our environment in search of active devices connected to a WiFi network. This system, as revealed in a video published by XiaomiTime, can detect suspicious devices connected to a WiFi network, such as a portable battery-powered surveillance camera, among others.
Screenshot: XiaomiTime / YouTube.
This tool can be very useful in alerting us to the presence of this type of device in the apartment or room in which we are, however, it does not seem to be able to determine its exact location, so it will be up to us, the users, to search the location of the suspicious device that the Xiaomi system has detected.
However, this system can only detect devices connected to a WiFi network, but not those that, for example, use a USB memory or microSD card to save recorded videos. These types of cameras or devices must be detected using more traditional methods.
Xiaomi has not yet specified which smartphones and tablets will receive this interesting function for user privacy and security, but it is estimated that it will arrive with the update to HyperOS 2.0.
Cover photo | Alejandro Alcolea for Xataka
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In Xataka Android |
In Xataka Android |
