Warning: This story contains some offensive language

So-called spy-cam porn has existed in China for at least a decade, despite the fact that producing and distributing porn is illegal in the country.

But in the past couple of years the issue has become a regular talking point on social media, with people - particularly women - swapping tips on how to spot cameras as small as a pencil eraser. Some have even resorted to pitching tents inside hotel rooms to avoid being filmed.

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  • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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    1 hour ago

    I have to wonder what would offense such an audience. Or put them at risk of something….

    Maybe just put Disney films on and let the cameras illegally rebroadcast that. Let Disney fight them.

  • Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca
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    8 hours ago

    Didn’t read the whole article but first thought - he was fine viewing others but upset when he was filmed?

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      I thought it might be possible that he thought they were staged, but it sounds like the practice is well known and you know what you’re paying for.

      Posing as a consumer, I paid to access one of the livestreaming websites promoted by him - for a monthly fee of 450 Yuan ($65, £47).

      Once logged in, I had the option to choose between five different filming feeds, each showing several hotel rooms - visible as soon as a guest triggered the electricity supply by inserting their key card. It was also possible to rewind livestreams from the start, and download archived clips.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Not to disregard the issue, but the ISI does the same thing to generate blackmail.

    Although considering the epstein files, that almost seems tame in comparison.

  • whereIsTamara@lemmy.org
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    1 day ago

    There’s a LOT of that stuff online. I dunno how they get away with it. Sometimes it’s like all in the same room, eventually someone is gonna know

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      They wiped out all the non professional porn awhile ago. 90% of it so was deleted over night. Everything is tied to an onlyfans or studio now

      • WraithGear@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        because the ‘actors’ could not be verified they were of appropriate age, or if they had consented to being in mass distributed pronography. it was a needed change, which is why i think putting restriction on the access to porn is a bad idea, because only the closest thing to reputable sites will honor the demand, leaving only the skuzziest of options available

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          5 minutes ago

          Look I get you all love living in a very commercialized world but I miss the world where every day people generated content. This isn’t just porn. I mean all content. Stuff made by regular people with no other intent than sharing it. But I’m the odd person out. You’re the norm. The person that loves a super safe, sanitized commercialized space where everything is a product and you’re a consumer. A world of v pewdiepis and mr beasts. Bangbuses and human trafficking cam sites. Subscriptions out your eyeballs as far as you can see.

      • whereIsTamara@lemmy.org
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        10 hours ago

        There are independent porn sites that still have user uploaded content like the good ole days.

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Maybe like forums where you need to be a member. But even the smaller sites are all mostly owned by the same company. They all pull from the same source it’s just different categories. The days of user created porn haven’t been a thing for a while.

          • whereIsTamara@lemmy.org
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            9 hours ago

            I see new stuff all the time on public sites. I suppose it depends on what you’re looking for.

            None of the sites are corporate. None of them have paid memberships. It’s all ad based if anything.

                • BanMe@lemmy.world
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                  2 hours ago

                  Aaaand you’ve got my attention.

                  I don’t like video tho, just pictures, so I followed Tumblr till it went down and then NewTumbl until it went down and now a third-gen clone that doesn’t have anywhere near the niches but is getting better, and pretty soon it’ll go down too.

            • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              I bet you don’t notice it but they’re mostly all tied to an onlyfans somewhere. It was an effort by the porn sites to remove them. Anything that wasn’t verified is purged

              • whereIsTamara@lemmy.org
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                6 hours ago

                Oh sure there are a good number of OF watermarks. I should be more clear, this isn’t women. Women don’t do get nude for free haha. This is dudes, and we all know dudes will have sex on camera for free.

      • three@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        They? Are you talking about pornhub? According to the article, this clearly wasn’t pornhub.

        • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Pornhubs parent company owns like 95% of all pornsites that host porn videos. When they scrubbed their content, everything trickled down. This video is in China. It’s an entirely different system there.

            • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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              13 hours ago

              These sites are paid for and you get links from telegram. This is in China. They haven’t allowed unverified porn on the internet for awhile now.

    • ageedizzle@piefed.ca
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      2 hours ago

      One option discussed in the article is pitching a tent in the room to avoid being seen. Sounds extreme but honestly might be worth it as these cameras get harder and harder to spot

    • curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
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      23 hours ago

      Rather than a flash, you could turn it on as a flashlight to look for reflections from hidden can lenses.

      You can also point your phone camera around to look for the IR led on a hidden camera. Note that the rooms lights should be turned off and any curtains closed for this to make sure the hidden camera goes to “nighttime” mode. You can check if your phone will work for this using a good old fashioned remote control with an IR led and see how well its picked up by your phone.

      You can also use your phone to check for WiFi networks that seem suspicious.

      • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Don’t forget Bluetooth. I have a handy app called “Bluetooth scanner” which scans for Bluetooth signals.

        It creates a list with the names of the devices it finds, plus other info like the device’s internal name, vendor name, BT address, signal strength, protocol and so on.

        It even has a feature which helps you find the device based on changes in signal strength as you walk around.

    • psx_crab@lemmy.zip
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      19 hours ago

      The theory is to detect infrared light for the cam who utilise infrared night vision, but from the article it seems that they don’t use that at all, so when the light’s out no one can view anything. This might be the reason why it went undetected.

      • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz
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        18 hours ago

        That’s one method, also camera sensors have a retro-reflective effect that makes using a camera flash highlight other cameras in its field.

    • alaphic@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I suppose you could theoretically utilize the flash functionality in an attempt to catch some sort of glare/reflection back from the hidden camera’s lens… maybe? This is just a guess, however, tbh, and I have my doubts of its efficacy against the borderline frighteningly tiny lenses in use on more modern equipment that is designed specifically to be hidden. The pricier gear could (potentially) even utilize special coatings or treatments intended to mitigate such a detection method for that matter, as there’s clearly no shortage of money surrounding the… “industry,” for lack of a better term.

      I certainly wouldn’t consider it a reliable test, that’s for sure