KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian arm of Swedish retail giant H&M has filed a police report amid concerns that footage from hidden cameras in changing rooms at its Kuala Lumpur stores were being sold online.
“Our customers’ safety is of utmost importance to us. All findings about the recent concerns about hidden cameras in H&M fitting rooms to date have been reported to the police, and investigations are currently ongoing,” H&M Malaysia said in a statement posted on its Twitter account on Wednesday (Jan 11).
“In response to recent concerns about hidden cameras in H&M fitting rooms, we have conducted an inspection of the fitting rooms in all H&M stores in Malaysia and are working to ensure that there are no security breaches that will compromise the privacy of our customers.”
Local media had reported that there were allegations that voyeuristic videos taken from inside the H&M changing rooms were being sold online.
These include the recordings of couples as well as individuals, The Star had reported.
On the H&M Facebook page, social media users have criticised the firm for being negligent, with some saying that the purported victims should sue the clothing company.
“Someone should file a case against your company. Especially with this acknowledgement of your negligence,” said a netizen.
Others have also called for shoppers to boycott the company and expressed their worry over being recorded, asking how long the alleged incident has been going on.
According to The Star, the issue was first highlighted by Twitter user @meleisgw on Sunday. The initial tweet has since been deleted.
An update was then reportedly posted on the account in which an alleged victim claimed to have recognised herself in one of the videos. It was thought that the footage may have been recorded in October last year.
The Star also reported that the Twitter user then received a DM (direct message) saying that a police report has been filed on the matter.
In a statement on Wednesday, Dang Wangi district police chief Noor Delihan Bin Yahaya said that an 11-second video that was uploaded to the @meleisgw Twitter account had shown a recording from a hidden camera in a changing room.
He added that a report was received on Monday and that an initial investigation is underway to identify the date and location of where the video was taken.