There’s a Peeping Tom in your Pocket and on Others’ Faces

Smart Devices: The Growing “Invisible” Surveillance Risk

As security awareness professionals, our training often centers on the “big three”: phishing, passwords, and physical tailgating. However, a new category of risk is literally sitting in our employees’ pockets, on their faces, and in their living rooms. Modern “smart” devices—from AI-powered glasses to home security cameras—are increasingly blurring the line between convenience and constant surveillance. To build a truly modern security culture, we must guide our teams on how to manage the “privacy-by-default” settings of the gadgets they bring into their personal and professional lives.

Key Guidance for Your Program

Consider highlighting these critical areas of automotive and home “device hygiene”:

• The Reality of “Cloud Training”: Many users don’t realize that “smart” features (like those in Meta’s smart glasses or Amazon’s Alexa) often involve human contractors reviewing recorded clips to train AI. Advise users to assume that if a device has a camera or mic, a third party might eventually see or hear what it captures.

• Secure the Basics First: Home security cameras are frequently hijacked through simple default passwords (e.g., “admin/12345”). Training should emphasize changing default credentials immediately and enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on the manufacturer’s account.

• Privacy by Design (User-Led): Encourage employees to use physical privacy shutters or lens covers and to avoid pointing indoor cameras toward sensitive areas like home offices, bedrooms, or bathrooms.

• Network Isolation: A sophisticated but effective tip is to teach users how to set up a Guest or IoT network on their home routers. Keeping “talkative” smart devices separate from laptops and phones containing sensitive work data limits the “blast radius” of a potential compromise.

• The “Audit” Habit: Before buying a new gadget, users should ask: Where does the data go? Can I use this without the cloud? What happens if the privacy policy changes?

By incorporating these points into your next newsletter or training module, you empower your workforce to protect their private lives and, by extension, the security of your organization’s distributed environment.

Read the full breakdown of modern surveillance risks here: There’s a Peeping Tom in your Pocket and on Others’ Faces

“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed, I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording.”

“I saw a video where a man puts the glasses on the bedside table and leaves the room,” one data annotator told reporters. “Shortly afterwards his wife comes in and changes her clothes.”