PrivacyScan: check a hotel room or rental for hidden cameras

What you can do with it

Scan the network and the air around you

• List devices on the Wi-Fi you are joined to that announce camera-style services (RTSP, ONVIF, video recorders) and see a Camera Score with a High, Medium or Low badge for each.
• List nearby Bluetooth Low Energy devices, strongest first, with signal bars, a rough distance band and a SUSPICIOUS tag on names that contain camera words.
• See the totals on the Scan tab: Network devices, Bluetooth devices and a Suspicious count.

Look where cameras actually hide

• Start a Room Inspection and tick off 29 checkpoints in 5 groups: electronics, decor, bathroom, ceiling and walls, entry. Each item has a one-line tip on what to look for.
• Open Camera Tools and use Lens Finder: live view from the back camera with the torch on, so you can sweep a dark room for the tiny bright dot a lens reflects.
• Use IR Test to see whether your own back camera picks up the infrared from a TV remote, and read why that is not a camera detector.
• Read the five short articles in the Privacy Guide, including what an iPhone can and cannot detect.

Quick start

1. Join the room's Wi-Fi, open PrivacyScan and allow Local Network access when iOS asks.
2. On the Scan tab, tap Scan Network and wait about 8 seconds. Tap any device to see its Camera Score and Detected Services.
3. Tap Scan BLE and walk slowly around the room. Tap it again (it now reads Stop BLE) when you are done.
4. Go to Inspect, tap New Inspection, type a name such as Hotel Room 204 and tap Start. Work through the checklist.
5. Switch off the lights, open Camera Tools, pick Lens Finder, tap Start and turn the torch on. Sweep the high-risk spots slowly.

Free, and what the optional upgrade does

Download is free, and nothing is locked behind a paywall: every scanner and tool runs with no scan limit. What you do get, in the free tier, is an upgrade screen popping up after a Wi-Fi scan finds something. Close it with the X and your results are still sitting there underneath.

Pay for Pro (weekly, yearly, or a one-time Lifetime) and that screen stops showing up, along with the banner and interstitial ads. One thing worth saying plainly: the upgrade screen also advertises reports, PDF export and device history. None of that exists in the current build. Expect nothing beyond the ad-free experience when paying.

Privacy, offline use and permissions

There is no account to create. Scanning happens on your local network and on the phone itself; nothing goes up to a server. Close the app and the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth results vanish — only the inspection checklist sticks around on the device, because that one is saved deliberately.

• Local Network: to discover devices on the Wi-Fi you are connected to.
• Bluetooth: to list nearby Bluetooth Low Energy devices. iOS asks at first launch.
• Camera: for the live view and torch in Camera Tools. Nothing is recorded.
• Tracking: only for ad personalisation in the free version. Refuse it and everything still works.

The free version uses the internet for ads; purchases and the help links in Settings also go online.

What it cannot do, and who it is not for

An iPhone has no radio receiver an app can call on. That rules out RF sweeps entirely, and it means no AirTags, no GPS trackers, no audio bugs. The Wi-Fi scan is narrower still: it only sees devices on the same network announcing one of 15 service types, and hotel Wi-Fi often hides guests from each other anyway, so an empty list there means little.

If this is for a business sweep or a legal matter, hire a specialist with real equipment. This app is for a traveller doing a sensible check in ten or fifteen minutes, nothing more.