UK Google search interest in buying hidden cameras has increased by 200 percent over the past year, according to analysis by National Private Investigators, which attributes the rise partly to growing public awareness of covert recording technology following news coverage of smart glasses in courts.
Analysis of Google Trends data covering August 2025 to August 2026 found that searches for "buy hidden camera" and "hidden camera for room" both rose 200 percent in the UK, while "small hidden camera with audio" was up 120 percent and "hidden camera alarm clock" up 110 percent.
Jack Charman, founder and chief investigator at National Private Investigators and a former Army reconnaissance specialist, said smart glasses are not the most significant concern for professional surveillance operations, pointing instead to concealment within everyday objects.
"Smart glasses haven't really changed the game from a professional surveillance point of view," said Charman. "They're too overt. People know about them and, crucially, you have to be looking directly at the person you want to record. If you're constantly facing somebody, you risk compromising the whole operation. There are far more discreet ways of doing it."
Charman said surveillance equipment can instead be incorporated into objects such as key fobs, coffee cups, phone cases and portable battery chargers, none of which require direct orientation toward the subject.
"These are objects you can hold in your hand or leave sitting naturally on a table," he said. "You don't need to keep staring towards whatever you're recording. To everybody else in the room, there's potentially nothing unusual to see."
National Private Investigators operates a nationwide team of more than 40 surveillance specialists and carries out Technical Surveillance Counter Measures sweeps for private and corporate clients. Charman said that in TSCM work, devices are now found embedded in permanent fixtures.
"When we're carrying out TSCM work, we find devices in all sorts of things now," he said. "Anything electrical that's permanently plugged in is a good place to look because it has constant power and can always be on standby. Televisions, Bluetooth speakers, charging docks, extension leads and alarm clocks are nearly always close to the areas where conversations happen."
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