When Are Airbnb Cams Legal (and How to Spot Them)?
When you rent an Airbnb, you are obviously staying at someone else’s private property. And all of these property owners have different ideas about how to run their DIY hotel , and many of them like security cameras and other recording devices. On the one hand, this makes sense: property owners are worried that the randos they rent out to will tear the house apart or commit crimes while on their property. On the other hand, it’s pretty creepy , especially when the recording equipment is hidden and you don’t know it.
What complicates the question of whether your Airbnb host is allowed to enroll you is the overlap between Airbnb rules and the actual laws governing enrollment in the area.
What is Airbnb’s policy regarding cameras and other recording devices?
Airbnb expressly prohibits the use of any hidden recording devices . If you find a hidden camera or other recording device (in a smoke detector, alarm clock, or elsewhere), report it to Airbnb and the police. However , Airbnb hosts may have recording devices outside of the property to monitor the perimeter and inside the property in common areas . Common areas are defined as places where you, as a guest, do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy and include living areas and corridors. They are generally not allowed in bedrooms or bathrooms, and if a room that is normally considered a common area has a bed, it is considered a bedroom and hence cameras are not allowed.
Airbnb requires hosts to report recording devices, so if you’re renting a property and only arrive to find cameras everywhere, you have a legitimate claim. Some hosts use tricks to hide these disclosures, such as listing them in tiny font at the bottom of the list. VRBO has a stricter policy that prohibits most recordings inside the property and requires guests to be able to deactivate devices inside the property.
One thing that some hosts miss is that Airbnb has a pretty broad definition of recording devices. Basically, anything that can record you matters, including things like laptops or even smartphones left idle. So if the host has a computer in the room with a microphone and a webcam, they should let you know because it could potentially be used to record you. And for what it’s worth, Airbnb also explicitly forbids guests from secretly listing their hosts.
What does the law say about recording devices?
As you might expect, in our perfectly functioning democracy, Airbnb guest registration laws are confusing at best. At the federal level, there is a law against taking images of “private areas” (i.e. our swimwear areas) without someone’s consent if that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. This means that if your host tells you about the camera in the living room and you go running around naked like you did on your birthday, the host is completely within his rights, but if he mysteriously takes a video of you getting out of the shower, it’s a federal crime. . It’s also illegal to record someone if you intend to blackmail them or harm them in any other way, although it can be difficult to prove intent.
When it comes to individual states, it’s a mixed bag. Basically, every state has some sort of law against recording someone when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and that’s about it – in 34 states, that’s all the protection you get. In other words, with the exception of bedrooms and bathrooms, all you have to protect is Airbnb and VRBO rules.
The remaining 16 states have different levels of additional protection:
- In Kansas, New Hampshire, Maine, South Dakota, and Delaware , covert surveillance consent must always be obtained, and any recording devices must be clearly visible.
- Alabama, Florida, and Minnesota explicitly prohibit the use of hidden recording devices in private areas.
- In Hawaii , you can set up any kind of cameras you want, as long as you get the consent of the recording people. In Arkansas, you can even record people in private areas if they agree. And in Georgia , you can install cameras anywhere, but only if they are clearly visible and easily identified.
- In California, any recording of any type of communication that could be considered confidential (i.e., not intended for public broadcast) is illegal. Essentially, this makes it impossible for you to be listed on Airbnb.
How to find hidden cameras on Airbnb
If you’re starting to get the feeling of a creepy Jordan Peele movie that you’re being watched on a short-term rental, there are a few easy ways to find hidden cameras:
- Use a flashlight with the lights off to find reflections from the camera lenses.
- Look through the vent covers and other holes in the wall where a small camera might be hidden.
- Unscrew and inspect smoke detectors and other wall or ceiling appliances.
- Use network scanning apps like Fing to find devices connected to Wi-Fi.
All of these methods require a bit of patience and time, but can give you some peace of mind when you’re in someone else’s house. If you find a camera that you weren’t told about, document it with photographs, call the police and file a complaint. Then contact the platform through which you rented and file a complaint.