Photo: A screenshot of Sina Weibo
Thousands of candid shots revealing citizens' in their homes and public venues such as public toilets have been obtained by offenders and sold online, an undercover investigation into the illegal industry by Chinese media exposed recently.
The offenders obtained the candid videos and photos by cracking cameras in private apartments and installing hidden cameras at public venues such as hotel rooms, massage parlors, fitting rooms, public bathrooms and toilets, before sharing and selling them via social media platforms, Henan Broadcasting System reported.
For example, an 8-hour video filmed from a bed and breakfast (B&B) hotel room, features a husband spreading out a sheet mask over his face while his wife is sprawling on a sofa playing with her mobile phone. Even their conversations can be heard clearly.
According to a seller of the candid videos, such videos of ordinary people's daily lives are popular among buyers who enjoy prying into others' personal lives. The video of the couple has been sold for hundreds of times, making sellers a small fortune in return.
More examples of videos include those featuring female shopping customers trying on clothes and receiving massages at beauty salons. Such intimate videos are only provided to "regular" customers.
The videos were priced between 20 yuan ($3.04) and hundreds of yuan based on their content. Buyers can even order tailored videos according to their requirements.
Further undercover investigations showed over 8,000 candid videos and photos were shared in a Tencent QQ group made up of over 900 members during a time span of 20 days.
A video shared in the group shows that a total of 24 hidden cameras were remotely controlled at the same time and each video could be viewed in real-time.
The videos shared in the group were obtained from across China. In Central China's Hunan Province alone, thousands of cameras were cracked, invaded and remotely controlled.
On China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, internet users advocated that the authorities should investigate the case because violating citizens' privacy is a major problem for public security.
A netizen named wuxiaofu xiexie zhuangzi questioned whether "all citizens should be obliged to become Sherlock Holms or Detective Conan and spend two hours looking for hidden cameras before relaxing in their hotel room? Can't hidden cameras be coded with serial numbers and only people with ID information allowed to purchase?"
Cases of citizens' privacy being violated by hidden cameras at hotel rooms have been exposed from time to time in recent years. A Chinese couple found a hidden camera in their room at a hotel in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province and were told by the hotel manager that 80 percent of hotel rooms in Zhengzhou were installed with monitoring cameras, stirring concerns over privacy violation among Chinese netizens in 2019.
Zhang Wuju, associate professor from the Law School of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Tuesday that offenders will bear corresponding administrative responsibilities, civil liabilities and criminal responsibilities based on the character of the videos and the purposes and consequences of spreading them.
"It is not because the cost of breaking the law is so low that many offenders dare to defy it. The offenders escape punishments or fail to be properly dealt with due to a variety of reasons including neglected duties by related departments and regulators," Zhang said.