THE city’s market regulator Saturday seized six pinhole cameras and 17 illegal electronic products from a store in Huaqiangbei Electronics Market and 118 illegal and counterfeit electronic products from Pacific Security and Protection Market, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.

The special action was launched a day after the State broadcaster CCTV reported that pinhole cameras, often used to intrude on personal privacy via remote peeping and eavesdropping, had been discovered being sold illegally in Huaqiangbei.

According to the CCTV report, although the lens of a pinhole camera is only the size of the tip of a needle, the camera can record sounds and video at a high quality. Meanwhile, the perpetrators who set up the cameras can access the video footage remotely as long as there is an Internet connection.

The reporter with CCTV found that a type of pinhole camera can be hidden in a small hole on the side of a plug board. Another type of camera can be hidden, along with its switch, charging port and SD card, behind a socket. This kind of pinhole camera makes no noise, doesn’t emit a red light when recording and produces high-quality images.

The report also revealed that many hawkers have been found peddling peeping and eavesdropping devices on the street in Huaqiangbei using advertisements. These street hawkers don’t carry the actual products with them, because they know selling them is prohibited.

If an interested customer follows them to see the devices, the hawkers will notify the sellers.

Apart from being peddled on the streets, the pinhole cameras have also been sold at indoor markets in Huaqiangbei. For instance, a socket-style pinhole camera was discovered being sold at a store in one of the markets. The camera behind the socket can record 4K-resolution video and transmit the footage to several phones.

At Huaqiangbei Electronics Market, a pinhole camera was found hidden in the cap of a pen. According to a business owner selling pinhole cameras in Huaqiangbei, the vendors can only sell the cameras in secret.

The report discovered that the socket-style pinhole cameras show no origin of production, contact information or quality certification on either their packaging or manuals.

The vendors at the market expressed that they didn’t care who would buy these cameras or for what reason. They only cared about making a profit.

According to China’s criminal law, those who illegally use peeping and eavesdropping devices and cause serious consequences can be sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment, detained or put under surveillance.  

(Liu Wenjin)