3 On Your Side: Baby Monitor Security Warning
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Everywhere you turn these days someone is watching, smart phones are recording people on the street, security cameras track your movement in stores. It seems that the only place you're safe from prying eyes is in the privacy of your own home. But as 3-On Your Side's Jim Donovan finds, even there, someone could be watching.
Monica Hallzee bought a video baby monitor to give her a sense of security. What she didn't expect was to see someone else's child! She says, "When we were looking at the monitor one day, it wasn't our son on there- we saw an image of a little girl." That image was of her neighbor's baby! In fact she can view her neighbor's crib and hear what goes on every time she turns her monitor on.
Security Expert Robert Ing says, "The scary thing about this is that it broadcasts just like a television broadcast. You don't really know who has access to this, and the whole thing these units are capable of sending a signal blocks away, not just down the street or next door."
Although it's illegal to use an electronic device to intercept a private communication security experts warn the signal these little "televisions" transmit can be picked up by anyone with the right gear. Ing says, "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."
So what is a concerned parent to do? Well you may want to invest in a digital video baby monitor. Because their signal is encrypted, digital models offer more protection than typical analog versions. They do cost a little more, and even though the offer better protection, they aren't perfect.
Reported by Jim Donovan, CBS 3
