It's time to watch out for hidden cameras

Technological advancement has turned hidden cameras so tiny that they are virtually impossible to detect, says an expert who warns that cameras in changing rooms and toilets are far more common than people realise.

According to Julian Claxton, a surveillance expert whose company, Jayde Consulting, conducts sweeps for recording devices, organisations are typically oblivious to the presence of hidden cameras and, on the odd occasions they do find them, are reluctant to come forward to inform police for fear of reputational damage, The Age reported.

Claxton mentions two instances in Sydney this year. One case involved a hidden camera in the changing room of a Sydney private school, and in the other case a camera was placed in the toilet of a building in Haymarket, New South Wales.

Claxton said that while mobile phones were easy to spot, there were scores of tiny recording devices available on eBay that were small enough to fit into the head of a screw, buttons, pens or cigarette packets.

"One-inch squared would be a big one," he said.

They have become so advanced that one 2.5-inch camera available on eBay has a wireless transmitter on it enabling the offenders to view the footage from a distance without ever having to retrieve the device. The cameras can either be connected to small batteries or permanent power sources.

Claxton said the problem was not only compounded by the fact that cameras were getting smaller, but also by the ability to record significantly more footage on a single card than ever before.

eBay's head of communications for Asia-Pacific, Daniel Feiler, said that, if the government introduced legislation banning the sale of hidden camera devices, eBay would look at getting them removed but as of today these were legitimate products.