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中文Keep your conversations private.
Bug sweeping services for hidden microphones, cameras and trackers in offices, boardrooms, residences, hotel suites and vehicles. Praetorian carries out every TSCM sweep with its own equipment, never through a subcontractor, in France and abroad.
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What a bug sweep covers.
A bug sweep, or TSCM inspection for technical surveillance countermeasures, checks a defined space for devices that listen, record, film or track without your knowledge.
A professional bug sweep is not a quick pass with a handheld detector. It combines an analysis of the radio environment, a search for hidden electronics and a careful physical inspection of the room, its furniture, its fittings and its connections. The aim is simple: to confirm that what is said or shown in a space stays there.
Offices and boardrooms
Executive offices, boardrooms and meeting rooms are swept before sensitive discussions: a board meeting, a negotiation, a financing, a restructuring or a dispute between shareholders. The sweep is usually scheduled as close as possible to the meeting, so that the room is checked when it matters.
Residences
Homes, apartments and secondary residences, including studies, private rooms and the places where family matters and business calls take place. A residential sweep is arranged around the household routine, with as little disruption and as few people informed as possible.
Hotel suites and temporary venues
A suite booked for a stay, a private dining room or a venue hired for a meeting is a space you do not control. Sweeping it before you settle in, or before a discussion held there, removes part of the uncertainty of an unfamiliar room.
Vehicles
A car used every day, or provided for a stay, can carry a GPS tracker or a listening device. A vehicle sweep covers the cabin, the boot and the places where a device can be concealed and powered. It fits naturally with our chauffeur service when a vehicle is arranged for you.
Praetorian owns its TSCM equipment and carries out its sweeps itself. The inspection is never subcontracted.
Signs you may be bugged.
Most requests start with a doubt rather than a discovery. These situations usually justify a professional check.
- Confidential figures, decisions or plans seem to be known by people who should not know them.
- A competitor or a counterparty anticipates your position in a negotiation or a tender.
- You are going through a sensitive period: a separation, an inheritance, a dispute between partners, litigation or a takeover.
- Contractors, visitors or former staff have had unsupervised access to your office, your home or your car.
- There has been a break in, or an intrusion where nothing of value seems to have been taken.
- You notice objects you do not recognise: a charger, a clock, a smoke detector, a gift left in a meeting room, or fittings that have been moved.
- Your vehicle has been out of your control: at a garage, with a valet, or parked for long periods in the same place.
None of these signs proves that a device is present. A sweep exists precisely to replace a doubt with a factual answer, whatever that answer turns out to be.
Why apps and gadgets are not enough
Consumer detectors and smartphone apps can sometimes spot a camera lens or a strong signal. They do not reliably find devices that are switched off, that record to internal memory, that transmit in short bursts or that are hidden inside equipment which already emits a signal. A professional sweep relies on several complementary methods, and on the experience of the person reading the results.
How a sweep is prepared, discreetly.
If someone is listening, the preparation itself must not alert them.
- Contact us from outside the suspected space. Do not discuss the sweep in the rooms concerned, on a line installed there or on a phone you think may be compromised. Use another phone and another place, and write to us by WhatsApp or email from a device you trust.
- Keep the circle small. Only the people who must arrange access should know that a sweep is planned. Do not mention it in a meeting, a shared calendar or an internal email.
- Describe the spaces. We need to understand the rooms, property or vehicles concerned, their layout and their use: a boardroom, an executive floor, a residence, a suite, a car.
- Explain your concern. Share as much as you are comfortable with. What prompted the request helps decide where to look first and which methods to prioritise.
- Agree an access window. The sweep is scheduled when the space can be inspected without interruption, often outside working hours or shortly before a meeting or an arrival.
Your situation, the dates and the scope determine the arrangement. Availability and timing are assessed after this first exchange, and a proposal follows. Nothing is sent automatically: every request is read and discussed before a quote.
On the day, the report, and abroad.
The visit is planned to look ordinary from the outside and to be methodical on the inside.
On arrival, the perimeter agreed in advance is confirmed: the rooms, the property and the vehicles to inspect. The sweep then follows a structured sequence rather than a random search.
The duration depends on the size of the space, the number of rooms and vehicles, and what was learned during preparation. It is estimated in the proposal, not promised in advance.
- Radio frequency analysis, to identify transmissions that do not belong to the normal environment of the space.
- Detection of hidden electronic components, including devices that are switched off or silent during the sweep.
- Thermal and optical inspection, to locate concealed cameras and electronics that give off heat.
- Checks on wiring, sockets, telephone and network connections, and the equipment present in the room.
- A meticulous physical search of furniture, fittings, ceilings, decorative objects and every place where a device can be hidden.
If a device is found
Nothing is removed in a hurry. The device and its location are documented, and the next steps are agreed with you, including whether your lawyer should be involved before anything is touched. A discovery can become evidence, and the way it is handled matters.
The report
After the sweep, you receive a written report describing the spaces inspected, the methods used, the observations made and our recommendations. When nothing is found, the report says so clearly and records what was checked. When something is found, it sets out the facts and the options open to you.
Recommendations often go beyond the sweep itself: who has access to the room, how meetings are organised, which devices are brought inside. When the question is wider than eavesdropping, a physical security audit reviews the premises, access control and procedures as a whole.
In France and abroad
Praetorian carries out bug sweeps in France and internationally: a residence, a hotel suite booked for a negotiation, an office abroad before a board meeting, a venue hired for a private event. Because the equipment is our own, a sweep abroad is prepared like any other assignment, with transport, access and timing planned in advance. Destinations beyond our usual map are assessed case by case.
A sweep can stand alone or be part of a wider arrangement with close protection, a chauffeur or security for a luxury event. As described in our method, the resources stay proportionate to your situation.
Questions about bug sweeping.
Short answers to the questions clients ask before a first sweep.
The price depends on the number and size of the spaces, the vehicles concerned, the location and the timing. Praetorian does not publish a fixed rate, because two sweeps are rarely alike. After a short exchange about your situation, we send a proposal that states the scope and the price.
It depends on the surface, the number of rooms, the amount of furniture and equipment, and the number of vehicles. A single office and a full residence are very different assignments. The expected duration is given in the proposal, once the scope is known.
A professional sweep combines several detection methods with a physical search, which is far more reliable than a consumer detector. No inspection can guarantee the future: a sweep confirms the state of a space at the moment it is checked. For recurring meetings, regular sweeps are more useful than a single one.
Smartphone apps can sometimes reveal a camera lens or an active wireless signal. They miss devices that are switched off, that record to internal memory or that transmit only intermittently. If the stakes are real, a phone check should not be your only answer.
As few people as possible. Contact us from a phone and a place unconnected to the suspected space, avoid shared calendars and internal email, and limit the information to the people who must arrange access.
No. Praetorian owns its TSCM equipment and carries out its sweeps itself. The inspection is never handed to a third party.
Yes. Vehicles, hotel suites and temporary venues can be inspected in France and abroad. Each request is assessed for the destination, the access conditions and the timing before a proposal is made.
Related services and clients.
Tell us what you need. In confidence.
A few lines are enough to start. We come back to you with questions or a proposal.