Privacy as smart devices rise in Listings

Ansuman0
Level 2
Seattle, WA

Privacy as smart devices rise in Listings

Has anybody been worried about their privacy given the smart devices that exist in listings when we travel? I can only imagine there being many more devices in the future that are listening, seeing and monitoring you during your stay in a few years time. There is also a great potential for personalization, esp. if Airbnb wants to do something about it, but at the same time privacy is top of mind. 

8 Replies 8
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Ansuman0  Many hosts have outside cameras, which need to be disclosed in the listing information. While I don't have any myself, because I just rent a private room in my home, there are many reasons that hosts have cameras that don't have to do with surveillance of guests. Some off-site hosts need them to see whether their lawn maintenance or pool cleaners showed up when they were supposed to, to have a record if someone should break into the house, either while it's unoccupied or while guests are in residence. I'm sure if there was break-in and guests had their belongings stolen, they would be grateful that the thief was caught on film.

 

And of course, hosts need to make sure that guests aren't sneaking in more people than they paid for, pets, or throwing a wild house trashing party.

 

But beyond that, most hosts are busy people and really have better things to do with their time than sit and watch or listen to guests go about their daily lives. It's about as interesting as watching paint dry.

 

Inside cameras are totally against Airbnb policy in private spaces, like bedrooms and bathrooms, and very few hosts would have them in living room or kitchen unless it was a hostel-type situation, where there are multiple unrelated guests sharing space. Those would be for the purpose of being able to determine who is leaving the kitchen  a mess, disturbing and grossing out the other guests, or in case a guest says "Hey, I left my iphone on the coffee table and someone in this house stole it."

 

And indoor cameras also have to be disclosed. Airbnb has heavy penalties for hosts who don't disclose surveillance devices, so it would be a very foolish host who woukd risk such a thing.

Ansuman0
Level 2
Seattle, WA

Sarah, I understand the spirit of the requirements and the policies from Airbnb. They make sense. Would you say that Airbnb makes it easy for new hosts to understand these policies? (for e.g. is it mandatory to reveal/disclose all surveillance devices when listing a home for the first time). Or is it the case, that you are aware of all of these because you are an experienced host. 

William - I am including all devices that are capable of capturing & persisting an a/v trail of a guest's activities during a stay. 

@Ansuman0  It's something that hosts have to fill out when they first put up a listing, just like there are boxes to check for smoke alarms, CO detectors, etc. and update if they change the location of the recording devices, or add or remove some later.

 

There's so much to fill out when first setting up a listing, that I guess a host could unwittingly miss that section, just as guests sometimes submit a booking request for 1 guest, instead of changing that default number to 4, which is actually the number of guests in their group. The host clues in when the guest mentions "we" in a message and has to ask the guest to change the guest count.

 

I read a host story recently where she had put an "Echo" clock in the guest bedroom. Not being tech-savvy, she just thought it was a cute thing that took photos if you wanted to use that feature. When another host asked why she would have a recording device in the bedroom, and told her she could get in big trouble, and she looked up what it actually did, she was horrified and removed it immediately.

 

So with the advent of all these devices, I suppose there could be something in the guest space that a non-tech savvy host might cluelessly put there without realizing its capabilities.

Right! It sounds like hosts could benefit from a) Training b) Some helpful call outs in the user experience ... 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ansuman0  cameras are everywhere - on the street, in shopping malls, parking lots, banks, hotels... if you don't want to be seen then better stay in your own bed 😄

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 - Its different when you think you are in public v/s when you are in an Airbnb and think of it as your home. If the government put a camera in your bedroom without you knowing it, would you appreciate that? 

@Ansuman0  cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms are not allowed neither in hotels nor in Airbnbs.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Ansuman0  "b) Some helpful call outs in the user experience ..."

 

I see you are an experienced guest with pages of great reviews. One thing to be aware of is that Airbnb has a really host-unfriendly way of dealing with guest reports of surveillance devices. What they do is they immediately suspend the host's account, pending an "investigation" and cancel all the upcoming bookings, effectively destroying the host's business. The host is considered guilty until proven innocent, and their account may be suspended for several weeks, even though the host, in fact, fully discloses the cameras in his listing, and customer service could verify that in 3 minutes.

 

So if you ever do discover what you think is an undisclosed recording device, please discuss it first with the host, in case, like the incident I mentioned above, the host was simply clueless about the recording capabilities of some device they just thought was a nice addition to the rental. (After the host was alerted to it, she came back and posted "OMG, thank you for telling me, I feel like such an idiot- I ran right over and removed that Echo clock before the next guest checked in")

 

And guests have sometimes  spotted something they thought was a hidden camera, only to find out it was a smoke alarm or part of the building's sprinkler system.