Spy cameras disguised as hooks for hanging clothes are being sold on Amazon despite the firm manufacturing them facing legal action. According to a report by BBC early Tuesday (Dec 12), a US judge ruled the firm must face a case brought by a woman who alleged she was filmed in the bathroom using a clothes hook camera purchased on Amazon.

The woman, a student and an aspiring actress claimed she was filmed at her West Virginia home when she was a child. The woman said she was surreptitiously recorded in the bathroom using a camera disguised as a clothes hook, which she said was purchased on Amazon.

The man alleged to be behind the filming was on trial for the case. Her complaint to a US district court noted that listing on Amazon, from where the camera was purchased was illustrated with a picture of it being used to hang towels along with the phrase “it won’t attract attention”.

The woman also said that the use of the camera was foreseeable to the e-commerce giant and sought punitive damages against Amazon Inc, Amazon.com Services LLC and other unnamed defendants, the BBC reported.

In an attempt to stop the case, Amazon argued that it was not responsible for how the camera was used. The BBC searched for similar cameras on Amazon’s UK website and found listings including an alarm clock hidden camera, a camera disguised as a USB charger, and a camera hidden inside a smoke alarm.

There was also a camera disguised as a shower radio.

Speaking to the network, Jaya Handa, a privacy partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, said that given the expectation of privacy within the home, “individuals could be committing a crime under a number of other legal frameworks including harassment, child protection, voyeurism, sexual offences or human rights laws.”

Meanwhile, activist Gina Martin said that victims of hidden cameras were often women and girls. Martin said that such cameras were being hidden from people who had been filmed “and we should all be able to explicitly consent to being videoed.”

(With inputs from agencies)