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You may have enjoyed, as most people do, short films made with a Candid Camera. Entertaining, sometimes funny, occasionally cruel, these films show a made-up situation where a mischievous interviewer prods unaware citizens to react to a gentle, teasing provocation.

The point is that this amusing, na:%$iuml;ve, spontaneous behavior is recorded by an unseen, hidden camera, while the object of the trick does not know that his/her leg is being pulled for future public entertainment.

There may be another, secular use of hidden cameras, not for fun but for surveillance.
While nobody, except appointed authorities, should undertake this task on his own in public places, in the privacy of a home or an office the practice is tolerated, provided it is not meant to breach anybody's privacy.

The question whether the use of a covert camera for surveillance in a private home is legitimate and justified should be considered seriously in advance by anybody thinking of implementing it.

It may be risky to carry out hidden surveillance in borderline or clearly forbidden cases, because every hidden camera can be exposed quite easily if a search is undertaken. In any case ignorance of the law in this respect is inadmissible.

In fact, improper spying on the privacy of anyone is a prosecutable offense almost always condemned by judiciary authorities.

In practice, in one's home, the only cases where operation of a surveillance camera disguised into a familiar object is admitted are those where there is a legitimate suspect of improper conduct on the part of people hired to engage in some domestic activity but not fully relied upon.

Honest people would obviously resent such a lack of confidence, and may feel offended if and when the presence of surveillance equipment intended to check their behavior is disclosed. Misbehaving helpers caught by a camera in any improper action have only themselves to blame.

In a shop or office there may be justification for use of covert cameras if there is a need to uncover shoplifting or recurring thefts. This delicate task however could be better entrusted to professional detectives, extraneous to interpersonal work relationship.

However the same purpose could be achieved more acceptably by operating the cameras in full view. Their presence would even work as a powerful deterrent of improper actions.

We already expressed elsewhere our view against the temptation to use this technology to spy on the family, even in difficult situations. In our opinion every effort should be made to try to face the problems openly, possibly with professional help.

So, even if these new surveillance cameras are easily concealed and operated, one should think twice of the risks in advance. One should also consider if the use is justified and legitimate and if any good is going to be obtained from the operation.