Countersurveillance – Common Sense Advice
One of the most common requests we get in our stores is to educate people on the different types of surveillance methods used so they can try to counter them. What does a GPS tracker look like? What does a bug look like? Can someone really put software on your cell phone so they can hear what you’re saying at all times? Answering these common questions can be useful in some cases in helping someone figure out what’s going on. But a lot of times, it just leads to more questions and eventually people wind up getting worked up over obscure possibilities rather than probabilities.
I have a couple of these type of discussions per week and sometimes they help, but often the possibilities overwhelm people and they stop listening to what I’m saying and let their imaginations run wild. Just because laser microphones exist doesn’t mean that someone went out and spent thousands of dollars on one to hear your everyday conversations. Just because devices that will emulate cell phone towers and knock out encryption exist doesn’t mean that someone spent tens of thousands of dollars and is risking serious jail time to hear your calls.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel like things are coming at you from all directions and that the person you think might be responsible for doing surveillance on you would go to any lengths to do so. But there are some basic common sense questions you can ask yourself that will help you slow down and see things a bit more rationally.
The first and most important question to ask is, does the person I think is doing surveillance on me have a financial interest in doing so? If the answer is no, then in a good majority of cases you can stop worrying right there. The fact is most people are not willing to throw lots of money into surveillance equipment to keep tabs on your day to day life unless there is a promise of significant financial return in doing so.
The second and third questions after you eliminate a financial motivation are who and why? If you can’t answer these questions with a clear answer right away, chances are you can stop right there. Random strangers or neighbors that you have little or no interaction with generally aren’t going to pick you and make your life miserable for no good reason.
The reality is that outside of corporate espionage and perhaps some divorce cases where there is a lot of money at stake, most situations where someone may be doing surveillance on you can be handled with common sense, keeping a level head, and some basic methods of counter-surveillance like a Radio Frequency Detector, our basic camera finders and very thorough physical inspection.
If you would like to know more about this subject, please feel free to stop by any of our stores for a demonstration of any of our basic counter-surveillance equipment. You can find our basic counter-surveillance equipment here on our website.
