Listening Device.
Soon the cheap ones will disappear from the market
In recent years, there has been a steep increase in the purchase of hidden cameras and listening devices in Israel.
There are many reasons for this, first of all, the extensive media coverage that the ascension cases in children received.
In addition, thousands of hidden cameras are sold for business espionage or for divorce battles.
One way or another, the high demand, along with the increase in the supply of solutions in the field, included the market, which is currently estimated to generate over NIS 100 million per year.
Most of the hidden cameras that are sold around the world, including in the Israeli market, are manufactured in factories in China, and their cost to the consumer ranges from NIS 500-2,000.
The rest, which are defined as sophisticated and much more expensive cameras - are manufactured in Taiwan, the USA and Europe.
A hidden camera in a pen.
Popular means of surveillance/PR
But recently, there has been a huge explosion in the field, which has weighty consumer consequences that directly affect the field of espionage in Israel as well.
The Chinese government recently raided dozens of factories in China that manufacture hidden cameras and closed them down.
Why did he take such a dramatic step?
Article 283 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China defines as a crime the illegal manufacture and sale of espionage equipment such as wiretapping and photography.
For years, the government in Beijing turned a blind eye, but a series of cases that occurred over the past year, in which hidden cameras installed in hotel rooms and public bathrooms were discovered, caused a panic that received extensive coverage in the media.
In order to reduce the height of the flames, the Chinese government ordered the police to strictly enforce the illegal production.
Bottom line - dozens of factories were closed.
Sources aware of what is happening in the Chinese market tell Walla Technology that in their estimation, the scope of production has been cut by 80% and the few factories that are still producing in secret are far from providing an answer to the worldwide demand for spying means for the civilian market.
Attorney Golan Vishnia, CEO of Worldshop, which is the largest company in Israel in the field of selling spy products and owns an Israeli factory for the production of hidden systems, explains that most of the cameras that are now sold, both in Israel and abroad, including on trade websites such as AliExpress, Amazon, etc., are in fact final inventory and when its sale ends, a kind of vacuum will be created. "It is about the market segment of the popular but cheap cameras, which are used for private spying purposes, such as parents installing surveillance cameras for nannies or kindergarteners, etc.," according to him, the production in Taiwan is not will fill the void that is created since these are much more expensive products.
Spy products marketers around the world complain about the vacuum that has been created and in a conversation we had with a number of stores in the field of spy equipment in Israel, a lot of pressure is evident: "80% of the last order I made was not delivered.
I was left with enough stock for two months." The owner of another store is even more stressed: "I committed to the supply of 250 units that were supposed to arrive in Israel.
The only option left for me is to purchase the products from another source in Israel that still has stock left, of course at a higher price."
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However, this is not the end of the problems arising from the Chinese government's decision.
Many spy products make use of direct video transmission through an application of the same factory, even when the product is connected to the wireless internet at home, the video makes its way through the application's server.
"In the event that a factory that also supplies the application closes, it is a matter of time until the application also stops working," explains Attorney Vishnia. According to him, "At the same time, we hope that in the coming months, the Chinese police will 'take their foot off the gas,' and new factories will be established , while cooperating with applications from external companies that provide a video application service." The move is expected to save the companies the hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment involved in the development of new applications. "This is the plan, but if the police continue to rigidly enforce the law, it will go down the drain," explains Dan Reva, an Israeli who lives in China, CEO of a company that develops applications.
And if we are dealing with hidden cameras: the year 2023 was recorded as one of the years in which the highest number of cases were recorded, in which men were caught making malicious and illegal use of removed photographic elements.
Thus, for example, the police arrested a high-tech man who placed cameras in the toilets and showers of the company where he worked and also placed a camera in a private house, where the members of the house, including minors, were recorded when they were getting dressed and in intimate situations.
In another case, the Israel Police detained for questioning a brother in a hospital in the south of the country, on the suspicion that he secretly recorded women in the changing rooms and bathrooms of the medical staff.
In another case, a teacher in his 40s is suspected of installing hidden cameras in the teachers' bathroom.
And case after case: an apartment owner installed a hidden camera in the bedroom of the tenant under the argument of "I need to fix something urgent in the room".
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