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    Spy Cams In Bathrooms: Naughty If You're A Landlord, Okay If You're Law Enforcement?

    By Kashmir Hill | Forbes – Thu, Jul 28, 2011

    An awful story making the rounds today comes to us from Tampa, Florida, where two exchange students from Bulgaria discovered that their rented apartment had cameras hidden in smoke and motion detectors in their bathroom and bedrooms. Welcome to America!

    The two twenty-somethings came to the U.S. for the summer to work (delivering pizzas and modeling) and to improve their English. They lived in the apartment for three months before realizing that the suspicious wires they'd spotted when they first moved in were connected to cameras. The St. Petersburg Times reports that the local sheriff's office is investigating and "has some leads." Since the cameras were Wi-Fi enabled, they were probably broadcasting footage to someone or even to a publicly accessible site. Recognize these ladies?

    I've seen way too many stories over the years where innocent people (usually women) are turned into involuntary porn stars -- to the point where I am now in the habit of neurotically scanning any strange, new bathroom for cameras. When I solicited advice on Twitter as to how I can be sure I'm not on candid camera at a vulnerable moment, fellow Forbeser David Ewalt suggested "bright infrared LEDs [to] blind a surveillance camera, but you may look like an idiot wearing a battery-powered hat," (as long as I'm an idiot not starring on a weird webcam porn site) while Alex Knapp advised me to get an Invisibility Cloak (good for protection against Voldemort AND pervs). Another practical follower said to "pee in the dark."

    At least if I'm ever arrested in New Jersey, there will be signs to warn me about bathroom cams. Stephen Asbell points to a recent legal case in Camden County, in which a DUI suspect sued the police department for filming her while she used a holding-cell restroom. Thanks to her lawsuit, the peeping po-po have made some changes to how they tape, reports Newsworks, though they will continue to have cameras in the bathrooms. Now they've posted signs alerting those in custody that they are being filmed, expanded a built-in black bar that's meant to cover up private parts, and placed tape on the floor indicating where the black-bar protection ends.

    I imagine the signs are similar to those you occasionally see in department store changing rooms: "You're on candid camera, creepy edition."

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