Baby Monitors Could Put Your Privacy At Risk
MIAMI (CBS4) - Every day thousands of parents use baby monitors to keep tabs on their little ones, but some models are more secure than others.
Monica Hallzee said she bought a baby monitor to giver herself a sense of 'security' as she watched her son while he slept. What she didn't expect was to see someone else's child when she turned it on.
"When we were looking at the monitor one day, it wasn't our son on there, we saw an image of a little girl," said Hallzee.
The young girl Hallzee saw sleeping lived next door.
Hallzee said she feels guilty because she can see her neighbor's crib and hear what is going on in the girl's room every time she turns on her monitor. It also made her wonder if she could see into the neighbor's home, could her neighbor see into her son's room. The simple answer was yes.
"The scary thing about this is that this broadcasts just like a television broadcast," said security expert Robert Ing. "You don't really know who has access to this. The whole thing these units are capable of sending a signal blocks away, not just down the street or next door."
Although it is illegal to use an electronic device to intentionally intercept a private communication, the signal the monitors transmit can be picked up by anyone who has a similar monitor.
"Anyone with a similar receiver could pick this up, they could videotape it, they could put it on the internet, it could be used to invade one's privacy, for identity theft, child predators," said Ing.
Digital video baby monitors offer a bit more protection as opposed to the traditional analog versions because their signal is encrypted, but even they are not a guarantee of privacy. The best advice is to turn off or unplug the monitor when it is not in use.
