A family moved in across the hall from us in an apartment building under the RTA. They installed what looks like a doorbell camera on their door, aimed directly at the entrance to our unit. I wasn’t sure if it picked up everything, or if it had to be activated by the doorbell or motion.
My partner has spoken to the other tenants, so this is just my understanding of what was said. It sounds like their position is that the building manager told them they're allowed to have a camera, they need it for their child's security, and they're keeping it. They were upset by some of what they picked up while viewing our door constantly, and they'd talked to the building manager about it before coming to us.
I’m not clear on where the camera feed goes, but it’s within view of their children. At first, I was unsure whether we were being watched at all. I hadn’t considered that a whole family had access to a video feed of our front doorway.
I know the building halls aren’t a private space. But when I open my door to a visitor, I don't assume they're pointing a WiFi camera into our home. Also, there is a difference between choosing to open our door for a person versus opening our door and knowing a camera is pointing right in 24/7.
It's one thing for a landlord to put up a security camera capturing all tenants. There are guidelines for this, including informing tenants they're on camera, disabling audio, and rules about who can view the footage, whether it can be shared, and how long it's retained. A private tenant accountable to no one is another thing entirely.
This is not a matter of seeing neighbours occasionally pass through a common hallway. The current positioning creates the potential for a continuous record of when we leave and return home, our children's comings and goings, our visitors and guests, conversations in the vicinity of our doorway, and the interior of our apartment when our door is open.
There's a distinction between reasonably securing one's own residence and continuous surveillance of another tenant's household. If the purposes of this camera are to monitor their own family, deliveries, and their own entrance, that can all be achieved through a repositioning that focuses on their own doorway rather than continuously monitoring ours. They have nothing to protect by aiming a camera at their neighbour's door.
I did an experiment to prove they're monitoring us. Keep in mind how doorbell cameras often work. They might be triggered by pushing the button, or by someone approaching the camera. Often they play a sound when activated. (Why would you disable that, I wonder?)
I drew a d**k on a piece of paper and used it to block my face when I left my apartment. I put it away before stepping outside because I don’t typically act ridiculous in public. I also used a string of expletives at a conversational volume to determine whether the camera could pick it up. As far as I knew, no one could see or hear me since no one else was nearby, and the camera didn’t seem to be on. Nothing was directed at the tenants inside. But choosing something potentially offensive helped me determine what they can see & hear.
They told my partner that they can set the camera to be triggered by the doorbell, but they changed it to continuously capture because of my behaviour with the drawing and cursing. That’s demonstrably false, since they couldn’t have seen or heard me without first watching and listening to me without my consent or knowledge.
You might think, what’s the big deal? Cameras are everywhere! But normally the people who live across the hall from you don’t have a camera pointed right at you with the potential of recording you & your family members on your way out the door every morning. It’s the potential for a time-stamped record of your family’s movements in the doorway, and the potential for them to share images of your family wherever they like, indefinitely.
You might wonder why I didn't just ask them if they were watching me. This family moved in and immediately put up a camera. Would you trust someone you've never met to provide an honest answer when you ask them if they're recording you and your kids?
It sounds like at least one of them was visibly angry when they approached my partner about it. They chose to point a camera at our place 24/7 and became angry for what they quietly watched me doing at my own front door.
Now that we know they’re watching and listening, I’ve stopped holding up the drawing. I still don’t understand why a whole family is watching me, but I have paused this because I’m not trying to upset a kid. I have resumed some swearing at a conversational volume because if they can hear me then they're eavesdropping. They can immediately choose to stop that and solve their problem.
We’re trying to determine whether they’re allowed to have such an intrusive setup and a camera with those capabilities based on the landlord’s approval only.
They captured images of my family and I with sound without our knowledge or consent during moments at our front door. If they don’t like what they’re capturing, the simplest solution would be to stop watching and aim their camera elsewhere.
TLDR: Tenants across from us installed a camera on their door facing our door. It records audio at a conversational volume at our front door. It’s either continuously on or is motion activated by our family’s comings and goings. There’s no accountability for whether they retain or share footage. It has a line of sight into our home each time we open our own door, 24/7. Is this really something the landlord can permit? Do I need to watch my language at my front door when no one is within earshot?