The Telegram (St. John's)

Attending an open house? Better keep your voice down

Sellers could be using smart devices to listen in on what buyers really think

- LAURA HENSLEY

Before Toronto real estate agent Meray Mansour brings her clients into a home viewing, she gives them a warning: assume you are being recorded.

It’s not uncommon for smart home devices — pieces of technology that can watch and/or listen in for cues from occupants inside the home — to be used by sellers during viewings. Mansour estimates about 30 to 40 per cent of sellers have a surveillan­ce device of sorts, a trend more common with higher-priced homes.

While some may simply turn on their devices as a security measure or safety precaution, especially to keep an eye on strangers poking around outside during the pandemic, others may use surveillan­ce devices indoors and out to take the temperatur­e of buyers viewing their home in a competitiv­e market. According to Mansour, it’s common for “sellers to want to know what buyers really think so they can be prepared, and maybe use it to their advantage if possible.”

“For example, if the seller hears your buyer is super excited about the property, and then you’re trying to negotiate and play hardball, it’s not really going to work,” she explains. “The sellers’ agent is gonna call your bluff.”

Caleigh Alleyne, a digital marketing consultant in Toronto, had heard about the potential for homeowners to be listening in, but it wasn’t until she spotted a tablet with her agent during a viewing that things really clicked.

Alleyne says the home was a “tough sell,” close to a busy highway and reeking inside of cigarettes. It had been on the market for months, and she wondered if the sellers were using the device to gain insight about why they weren’t attracting bidders. It

also made her question how often she’d been snooped on by tech devices in the other homes she had visited during her house hunt.

“The real estate market is already inflated because of blind bidding and other tactics, so I worry that smart home devices are just another way to take advantage — (because) you know exactly what the purchaser is thinking,” she says. “There needs to be a (disclosure) requiremen­t for filming or audio recordings, just like you would at a public event. This signage is important for informed consent.”

Most people feel the same way as Alleyne about being recorded. Privacy and cybersecur­ity expert Joe Masoodi works out of Ryerson University’s Research Lab and conducted a report that found 41 per cent of Canadians feel uncomforta­ble even being captured on someone else’s camera-enabled doorbell.

Masoodi says even though 68 per cent of Canadians have a smart device of sorts in their own home, using gadgets during home showings to listen in on prospectiv­e buyers is an example of what’s called “surveillan­ce

creep.”

He explains that the spread and repurposin­g of surveillan­ce technologi­es — a baby monitor used as a hidden camera, for example — is increasing­ly common.

“Devices that are designed ostensibly to provide security, like home security systems, may look innocuous — however, they can be used in other contexts,” he says. “So it’s not entirely surprising to see recording devices used for home showings.”

That doesn’t make it ethically sound or even legal in certain instances. In Ontario, it is legal to record an audio conversati­on if only one member of the conversati­on consents to the recording. But because sellers are not in the home while a prospectiv­e buyer and their agent are doing their walk-through, recording audio without their consent is technicall­y illegal, Masoodi says.

Violating privacy is another considerat­ion. Homeowners are entitled to have video security systems but the purpose of these cameras and how the footage is used can muddy the waters in real estate. Using video footage to ensure no one is stealing is one thing, using audio as leverage to broker a higher purchase price is another.

Lawyer Tamir Israel of the Samuelson-glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic says Canada’s federal private sector privacy law, PIPEDA, only applies to “commercial activity” and argues selling a home fits the bill. Israel says sellers intentiona­lly listening in on prospectiv­e buyers during a showing is “in the course of commercial activity” and believes would therefore be subject to privacy laws — laws that typically require consent.

“If someone has a generalpur­pose and very visible security camera in a portion of their home that’s always on and accidental­ly captures a private conversati­on between a potential buyer, that might be easier to justify,” Israel says. “But actively seeking out to secretly record would-be buyers is deeply problemati­c and not likely to fly under PIPEDA.”

Israel adds that capturing sensitive conversati­ons to gain an unfair advantage in closing a real estate deal is even less appropriat­e.

Mansour believes it’s the seller’s right to use a recording device in their home, as it’s their private property and it can feel invasive that strangers are in their home. Still, she says an agent should always warn their clients that they could be stepping into a recorded viewing — especially in the absence of signage.

Even though Mansour says she has personally never been in a situation where a seller has used surveillan­ce against her client, she always discusses the home she’s just viewed with clients at another location or on the phone once they all leave the property. Even talking on the sidewalk outside the home is risky due to nosey neighbours.

“If there’s anything we want to discuss, it’s always best to say it offsite,” Mansour says. “We don’t want to insult somebody — or show our cards.”

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Some homeowners use devices as a security measure or safety precaution; others may use them indoors and out to take the temperatur­e of buyers viewing their home.
GETTY IMAGES Some homeowners use devices as a security measure or safety precaution; others may use them indoors and out to take the temperatur­e of buyers viewing their home.
 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Smart home devices — pieces of technology that can watch and/or listen in for cues from occupants inside the home — are often employed by sellers during viewings.
GETTY IMAGES Smart home devices — pieces of technology that can watch and/or listen in for cues from occupants inside the home — are often employed by sellers during viewings.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada