High-Tech ?Peeping Toms? Spy On Women, Children

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If there is one place in the world you expect to have privacy, it?s the bathroom. But a FOX 6 Investigation finds more and more women are finding their sense of security shattered by hidden cameras in the most private places.

Local prosecutors say the problem is getting worse as technology makes the cameras smaller and more affordable for the average consumer. In other words, you don?t have to be a secret agent or private investigators to own a hidden camera anymore. You can buy a high resolution video camera and self-contained recorder disguised as a ball point pen for less than it costs to fill your car up with gas.

In fact, hidden cameras are easy to find for sale on websites like Amazon, eBay, Craiglist and a host of websites that cater to private investigators and law enforcement, and specialize in sales of covert video gear.

In Wisconsin, it?s perfectly legal to use hidden cameras, as long as you?re not violating someone else?s privacy. It?s a felony to record someone in the nude without their consent. But prosecutors say that?s happening more often. And in many cases, the people caught doing it have no prior criminal record.

Jon DeBelak is a national champion barefoot water skier who was busted in 2012 for secretly recording video of a married woman as she undressed in his bathroom. The victim? His longtime water skiing doubles partner.

?She has nightmares about it,? says Cory Krivitz, a competitive water skier who knows the victim well. He says Debelak?s former doubles partner got a 10-year restraining order after learning she?d been spied on with hidden cameras. One was made to look like a tissue box. The other, an alarm clock.

?People would never look and think there is a hidden camera in that item,? says Erin Karshen, an Assistant District Attorney in Milwaukee County who specializes in sensitive crimes.

SecurityHive Editor’s Comment:
“Reasonable Expectation of Privacy” is the legal threshold for the usage of video surveillance equipment. And as you can see from other SecurityHive.com articles such as the bathroom of a restaurant (see: or the ) or of public restrooms, this expectation of privacy and the line even within a specific area of a bathroom is blurring.

Read the rest of Fox 6’s report […]

Source: fox6now.com
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