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Conducting a physical search

Look and listen

How can I sweep my house for listening devices? This is the first step towards finding hidden microphone / surveillance devices. Whether it is your hotel room, office or home, start by looking for any suspicious items. Something may seem out of place. The teddy bear or wall clock may seem a bit out of place or it may just seem different.

Find items that are not supposed to be there or maybe you don’t even remember having them in the first place.

Turn your attention to the entire room/house. Look out for any deformations on the wall, any discolorations on the paintwork, any cracks on the wall, etc. A hole may have been drilled into the wall, the bug installed and the paint was redone; but in most cases, the change will be easily noticeable if you look carefully.

This also applies to your car. Try to look for anything that seems out of place. There could be a blinking light on your car’s dashboard that wasn’t there before. Alternatively, something can be attached to the car (mostly on the chassis, or the bottom of the car).

Whatever you find odd, investigate further. This may mean prying the device from your car if you’re certain it’s foreign. Inspect your appliances for anything that is attached to them. Additionally, you may need to chisel through the deformity on your wall.

Bugs are installed in common appliances you wouldn’t suspect. These include smoke detectors, light bulbs or even door stoppers. It’s always worth a try checking to ensure none of these appliances have been tampered with. If that happens to be the case, there is the likelihood someone installed a bug on them.

Next. Listen for any suspicious sounds. This could be incessant buzzes or beeps. You’ll need to switch off other appliances or even your car’s engine to hear better. Just as when you see any suspicious item, whenever you hear a suspicious sound, investigate further for hidden microphone surveillance.

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Look at your device’s data metrics

Remember to check data usage metrics on your devices. Most listening devices are physical. However, many forget that their own mobile devices can be used as listening devices too.

Similarly, most surveillance bugs rarely store data locally. Rather, data collected by the listening device is sent to the owner of the bug. To do this, the bug/listening device should have a way of transmitting this data to the owner of the bug. A wired connection is unfeasible in a covert approach. Therefore, most bugs utilize the internet to transmit the data.

For this reason, checking your mobile phone for unusual data traffic as well as your router can provide insight. You can check whether your internet connection is used by bugs. Some bugs however utilize their sim card or some other internet connection to avoid detection.

In cases like this, scan for strong Wi-fi connections that aren’t your own. Additionally, that you know are not of neighbors. We’ll get to how you can detect such bugs shortly.

Look at your power sources

There are battery-powered bugs out there and they could be used against you. However, for purposes of sustained surveillance, a large percentage of bugs have to be connected to a power source. For this reason, watch out for any suspicious cables lying around the house or even in your car.

If possible, follow these cables to where they lead, you may find a listening device at the end. Also, always look out for any stray electrical wires/cables from conduits in your wall, floor, or ceiling. Ensure these wires/cables lead to where they’re meant to, i.e. to a bulb, socket, and not a hidden listening device.