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BBC Probe Exposes China’s Secret Hotel Spycam Market Livestreaming Guests

The investigation details live feeds from dozens of concealed hotel cameras promoted on Telegram, highlighting the limits of 2025 room-inspection rules.

Overview

  • A Hong Kong man known as Eric found an hour-long video of himself and his partner from a Shenzhen hotel on an illicit channel, and the couple reports ongoing trauma.
  • Over 18 months, reporters identified six platforms promoted on Telegram that claimed access to more than 180 hotel-room feeds and archived thousands of clips dating to 2017.
  • Continuous monitoring of one site for seven months revealed footage from 54 different hidden cameras, with roughly half operating at any given time.
  • Investigators traced a device in a Zhengzhou room to a wall ventilation unit wired to power, which evaded a common detector before being swiftly replaced elsewhere.
  • An operator known as AKA ran paid channels with up to 10,000 members charging about 450 yuan a month, as NGOs decried slow takedowns and Telegram said it forbids non-consensual content.