Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Imagine that you are looking for a new home with your spouse and children, and while at a showing, the agent gets a strange call. It’s her listing agent who informs her that the sellers are watching all of you on a camera, and they want to make sure your children are careful around the china cabinet…
What?This happens? It most certainly does, and it’s definitely freaky. Plus, itraises some legal and ethical questions, too. This has become more of an issuethan ever before with real estate, and agents are really dealing with somethingthey have never had to worry about before.
Ingeneral, there are laws out there about recording people without theirknowledge, but these laws vary by state, and what is covered in one place mightnot be covered in another. On top of that, most real estate agents aren’t awareof what is legal and what is not. Some states, for example, only require thatone person knows that the surveillance is happening, but in other states, bothparties must be aware. Other states require that a notice is posted ifrecording is happening.
Themajority of agents believe that they have an obligation to tell their clientsif they know that there is recording equipment in a home, but at the same time,they might not know either. This can also, of course, cause some legal issuesduring a negotiation, as potential buyers might be discussing strategy duringthe showing, while a seller could be listening in, giving them the upper hand.Some agents have even told their clients that they shouldn’t talk about whatthey are thinking about a house until they are outside and away from anypotential recording equipment.
Onthe other hand, some sellers believe that they have an absolute right to recordin their own homes, and they very well may have that right. Again, in general,things are quite cloudy here, and they are only set to get cloudier as timegoes on.
At this point, it’s not even just traditional surveillance cameras that homeowners are using. They also are using smart-home technology to keep an eye on their homes including video game consoles, smart door bells, and even devices like Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices. Of course, there are also a number of privacy concern associated with these things, too. As these devices get cheaper than ever before, more and more homeowners are jumping on the surveillance bandwagon. So, if you are a in the market to buy or sell a home, make sure you talk to your realtor about this, especially if you are a seller who has these devices in the home.
Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.