Hidden cameras in houses for lease is illegal and a breach of privacy, a privacy law expert warns after a bridal party discovered a camera in a lightbulb in their rented Auckland accommodation.
On Sunday 1 NEWS reported a bridal party was horrified to discover a 360 degree spy camera hidden in a light bulb in the house they hired for their pre-wedding preparations.
Privacy law expert Kathryn Dalziel told TVNZ1’s Breakfast this is something that just shouldn’t happen, but it is becoming a common occurance.
“We need to be concerned, this isn’t the first time it’s happened… …it’s happening more and more frequently."
She says if guests "were in their underwear" on camera the guests would have grounds to lay a complaint with police. But in this particular case the guests laid a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner.
"It is illegal so the big risk for an owner in that environment is that they can even be down to their underwear and that would make it a crime because if they capture somebody in their underwear, not just naked that would be an intimate visual recording," Ms Dalziel said.
She says home owners who lease out their houses need to be very careful about putting cameras inside their homes.
"They’re leasing that out to somebody and nobody likes being video or audio taped without their consent, which unsurprisingly the law agrees."
Ms Dalziel warns home owners that if you are going to have a camera in your house, tell the people hiring the place you have a camera there.
"If the home owner tells them there is a camera there, it’s perfectly legal."
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