A group of entrepreneurs in Texas are marketing a device they say can detect the use of wireless cameras and microphones. Wayne McManners and fellow Farmers Branch, Texas, resident Terry Yon are importing and selling a Taiwanese key chain device that can detect radio waves commonly used for wireless video transmissions.
The two are selling their “Bugscanner” for $34.95 to those who they say find wireless video surveillance intrusive. McManners told the Dallas Morning News that one Bugscanner user found two hidden wireless cameras in one week. First, he says, she discovered one inside her Florida time-share. A couple days later in Las Vegas, the woman discovered her hotel room was being monitored through a tiny hole in the wallpaper.
Electronic surveillance professionals tell the Morning News however that the detectors may give a false sense of security. “Anybody that’s any kind of eavesdropper at all is not going to use wireless to begin with,” said Barry Cauley of the Countercom security agency. “They’re going to use wired systems. You just have too many problems with wireless. Batteries go dead, and all sorts of other things can go wrong.”
