A Chinese journalist managed to get access to a stream of images delivered by a surveillance camera located on the roof of a building. Although the camera was supposed to be keeping an eye on a set of crossroads, the journalist noticed that during the night, the policeman in charge was lingering on the windows of a building across the street.

It was a hack from the Southern Metropolis Daily who unveiled the scandal (which was then passed on by blogger NorthEastSouthWest). He had been scanning the real time broadcast of the monitoring camera in the town of Yayuan (southeast) since April 26. He started to notice that, once night had fallen, the devise did not merely fix its attention on the crossroads below, but scanned the building across the road at length. It also stopped, with no apparent reason, on windows where the curtains were open. The reporter published an extract (below) illustrating this strange method of observation, as the camera spent 59 minutes and 41 seconds "surveying" the same window frame, which happened to expose a young woman naked in her bathroom. Local authorities reacted to the affair by promising serious punishment for the person responsible. They also suggested the camera was being operated by a "temporary" staff member.

The incident serves as a reminder that security cameras operating inner-city - and not only those in China - are a serious cause for concern in terms of respect for private life.