How to hire a bug sweep: what to require before you sign

Before signing, require a written scope that lists included and excluded areas: rooms, floors, vehicles, phones, telephone lines and technical areas. Without that list, two quotes for the same property can cover very different things.

The scope should also state the date, the estimated duration and what the client must provide, such as access to ceilings, electrical panels and furniture. Whatever is left out must be written down, so nobody mistakes it for a verified area.

Ask which techniques will be applied and which equipment will be brought: radio-frequency spectrum analysis, nonlinear junction detection, thermal imaging, line analysis and physical inspection. Each covers a blind spot of the others, as explained in how a professional sweep works.

Nonlinear junction detectors are expensive equipment: the public purchases surveyed ranged from R$ 204,790 to R$ 385,100, with a median of R$ 320,000^[1]. If the technique is not planned, the scope should say so, and the price should reflect the difference.

Require to know who performs the sweep, how many people and what their relationship is with the provider. Whoever enters your space will see documents, routines and intimate items, so the contract should include a confidentiality clause, a ban on photos and records without authorization and rules for the use and storage of the report.

Personal data handled during the service requires a legal basis and security measures under Brazil's LGPD^[2]. This guidance is informational and does not replace contract review by a lawyer.

The report should describe scope, techniques, equipment, dates, findings and what was not verified. Be wary of a document that declares the place clean, safe or free of bugs without caveats, because a sweep shows the state of the space on the date it was done.

A device can be installed after the visit. That is why a serious report includes access control recommendations and indicates when a new check makes sense, as in sweep frequency by exposure level.

Compare proposals by scope, not by final price. A Folhapress report states that a sweep service costs about R$ 2,000^[3]. In the public procurement survey, by contrast, three service contracts ranged from R$ 4,000 to R$ 131,000, with different scopes and a small sample^[1].

That gap shows that price alone does not say what was hired. Public data do not measure the private market, but they help you ask what explains each difference. See the sweep pricing research.

Be wary of anyone who promises an absolute result, such as guaranteeing that no bug will exist, or declaring the place clean forever. A provider who does not detail techniques, does not say who performs the work, refuses a confidentiality clause or quotes a price far below the market without explaining the scope should also raise concern.

A provider that uses only a marketplace detector delivers little of what the service promises. Understand the difference in professional sweep or internet detector.