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How to Scan Your Airbnb for Hidden Cameras - Slate
It’s not as technically difficult as it might sound.
Over the weekend, news outlets reported that a New Zealand man named Andrew Barker had found a camera, hidden in a smoke detector, in his Airbnb that was livestreaming a feed of the living room. Barker was in Cork, Ireland, on a 14-month trip around Europe with his family when they checked into the rental house. Once they unpacked, Barker, who works in IT security, conducted a scan of the Wi-Fi network and found a camera the owner had not mentioned. He was then able to connect to the camera and view the live feed.
The next day, the Barkers notified Airbnb, but he told the media that the company treated the incident like a canceled booking and just temporarily suspended the rooming post after a privacy investigation that the family found unsatisfactory. It wasn’t until Nealie Barker, Andrew’s wife, posted details of the incident on Facebook that Airbnb removed the listing and admitted that the original response “did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves.”
This isn’t the first time that an Airbnb guest has discovered hidden recording devices in a rental unit. As Ars Technica reported, a woman found a remote-controlled camera in the living room of an apartment she had been planning to stay in for a month in 2013. She sued both Airbnb and the apartment’s residents, alleging that the camera had filmed her without clothing and recorded intimate conversations she had with her partner. In 2017, Florida police arrested a man for video voyeurism after his Airbnb guests reported finding a camera in the bedroom’s smoke detector.
It’s not as technically difficult as it might sound.
Over the weekend, news outlets reported that a New Zealand man named Andrew Barker had found a camera, hidden in a smoke detector, in his Airbnb that was livestreaming a feed of the living room. Barker was in Cork, Ireland, on a 14-month trip around Europe with his family when they checked into the rental house. Once they unpacked, Barker, who works in IT security, conducted a scan of the Wi-Fi network and found a camera the owner had not mentioned. He was then able to connect to the camera and view the live feed.
The next day, the Barkers notified Airbnb, but he told the media that the company treated the incident like a canceled booking and just temporarily suspended the rooming post after a privacy investigation that the family found unsatisfactory. It wasn’t until Nealie Barker, Andrew’s wife, posted details of the incident on Facebook that Airbnb removed the listing and admitted that the original response “did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves.”
This isn’t the first time that an Airbnb guest has discovered hidden recording devices in a rental unit. As Ars Technica reported, a woman found a remote-controlled camera in the living room of an apartment she had been planning to stay in for a month in 2013. She sued both Airbnb and the apartment’s residents, alleging that the camera had filmed her without clothing and recorded intimate conversations she had with her partner. In 2017, Florida police arrested a man for video voyeurism after his Airbnb guests reported finding a camera in the bedroom’s smoke detector.