The camera is fixed high at the corner of a small clinic’s cabin. A woman walks in, sits on the examination table, and adjusts her gown before a vaginal exam. She has no reason to look up to the camera. She does not know the lens above her was recording her every movement. She does not even fathom that the clip would later appear online with watermarks like “Am8707,” “Camera 13,” or even “sexclinic.com.” Unknowingly, she was about to become part of a growing bank of leaked hospital footage sold as porn on the internet.
This is only one among the countless videos we combed through, only to find that such clips are not limited to one clinic, hospital, or one type of medical procedure.
Across hundreds of leaked clips, women are seen being examined in labour rooms, breastfeeding in general maternity wards, changing clothes before surgery, lying unconscious in ICUs, or delivering babies. Many of the cameras appear to be routine CCTV installations that patients were never informed about.
Unsecured CCTV networks, weak digital hygiene, and a near-total absence of rules allows hackers to monetise the trust patients place in hospital safety. In many clinics and small hospitals, camera systems are left open or protected only by default passwords, making them vulnerable to anyone with basic technical knowledge.
For months, The News Minute has been investigating the underground market of stolen CCTV footage sold as porn. This is the second story in that investigation. Earlier, TNM’s Megha Mukundan traced CCTV leaks from theatres in Kerala, which led to an FIR being filed.
To understand how hospital footage ends up online, we joined Telegram channels where these clips were sold. Access was disturbingly simple. Within minutes of joining one channel, an administrator sent a catalogue of content for sale: clips from theatres, hostels, homes and hospitals. For a payment of Rs 1,500 via UPI, a folder containing over a thousand CCTV clips was shared.
The hospital footage stood out for its intimate and sensitive nature. Some recorded childbirth from high-mounted cameras, injection-room procedures, X-ray sessions and routine ward activities. Even without audio, the clips revealed how comprehensive and invasive the recordings were.
The footage was carefully organised, often tagged by camera number.
How the leak actually happens