Practical for travelers: Xiaomi smartphones will be able to recognize hidden cameras and protect privacy in the future

Platforms such as Airbnb are popular, and for good reason. Travelers can use such portals to book vacation apartments or rooms at more desirable locations at very reasonable prices. Unfortunately, however, there have been reports of apartments and rooms with hidden surveillance cameras. Although Airbnb's terms of use clearly prohibit such systems, not all landlords seem to adhere to these. Depending on their positioning, hidden surveillance cameras can violate the most private aspects of one's life, the (secret) recording of which constitutes a criminal offense. Various solutions for detecting such cameras exist, and now Xiaomi intends to integrate such a function into its own operating system.

Hidden cameras can be found with a program developed by Xiaomi, which carries out an analysis of active WiFi devices. This aims to reveal suspicious devices, but the smartphone cannot really help in the location of such devices. Moreover, this function does not necessarily detect all hidden cameras, but only those that are connected via WiFi. Particularly small and battery-operated surveillance cameras sometimes do not have a WiFi connection, but only a memory card, making detection even more difficult. A possible solution is to scan for the infrared radiation emitted by the hidden camera via a night vision function. It remains unclear exactly which devices will receive Xiaomi's program, but basically no special hardware is required.