“Behind this factory there is a camera.” Pedro – that is not his real name – had been in this house in the Conxo district of Compostela for almost two weeks, where the rooms were rented individually, when, while he was preparing dinner, one of his companions showed him a flower pot strangely hanging on the wall. ceiling. Behind her, without much concealment, we could see the device that, until then, we had not noticed.
Pedro is a philologist who arrived in Santiago in September for an academic stay. At the start of the course, while apartments for university students once again opened a small gap among tourist accommodation following the dismissal by the municipality of those who hoped to regularize their illegal situation, it quickly became apparent that, for their needs, they were not suitable. were going to find nothing in traditional rental. He therefore opted for the Airbnb platform.
Among the prices which varied between 700 and 800 euros for a month, an attractive offer quickly emerged: a room for only 370 euros in Conxo, a stone’s throw from Ensanche and just over two kilometers from Praza da Universidad. , where its work center is located in the historic center. Pedro had no doubts.
On October 16, he moved into his room, one of five rented in the three-story house, with a bathroom and kitchen shared by all guests. When he arrived, there were three others, all foreigners and with plans to stay similar to his. It was one of them who discovered the first camera and passed on a conviction: “they felt they were being observed”.
This explained “strange” things.
After the surprise, Pedro understood some “strange” things that had happened to him during these twelve days. The owner – a Florida resident – responded to her WhatsApp messages just as she was returning home. And one day, after complaining about the musty smell she noticed in the room – it was forbidden to leave the windows open when leaving the house to keep the rain out – the landlord told her to go down to the lower floor. and ask another tenant for the dehumidifier door. “I thought I should call room by room, but I just passed him in the kitchen. Of course she knew he was there,” he later realized.
Pedro asked his companions – two young Latin Americans and a girl from Eastern Europe – why, if they knew about the existence of the cameras, they had done nothing. They admitted that they felt “uncomfortable”, but that neither of them had planned to spend more than a month there and so they preferred to avoid problems.
The kitchen wasn’t the only one. In the complaint that Pedro filed with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) – which he was recommended to do when he went to the police station – he cites three others: one on the landing on the first floor and two others at the entrance. housing. Unlike the one located outside the property, these devices “are not notified, they do not appear in existing photographs of the property, their conditions are not reported and they are in operation”, writes Pedro, who underlines the “camouflage”. ” of the one in the kitchen: neither it nor the plant itself which tries to cover it are ” in the photos of the ad “.
That same night, he reported the incident to Airbnb and contacted the owner, who first “insisted that the kitchen camera is disabled” and that the other two are “turned off”, even though, as the Pedro says, “They focus on the bedroom doors. Throughout the conversation, they will have WhatsApp during the early hours of the morning – and which the complainant attached to his letter to the AEPD – the owner of the accommodation will ensure that “all cameras in the apartment are disconnected”, despite the fact that the red light “is activated by light or by movement”, as he demonstrates with videos that he has integrated into his document.
Cameras on Airbnb: neither on, nor off, nor hidden
Even if this argument had been true, the behavior would still violate Airbnb’s own rules. “We do not allow hosts to have security cameras or recording devices that monitor indoor spaces, even if they are turned off,” explains the platform on its website, where we can read: “Hidden cameras have always been prohibited and will continue to be prohibited. .” Only outdoor security cameras, decibel monitors, and smart devices are permitted, provided they “meet” certain guidelines and applicable laws.
Pedro left home that night and went to a friend’s house, 60 kilometers from Santiago. Unilaterally and without giving any explanations, Airbnb returned 184 euros to him and not the 222 to which he felt he was entitled, by simply dividing the payment by the number of nights he spent renting. However, after seeing how room ads were disappearing from the platform, he decided to turn the page and leave it at that. Until they return.
After two weeks of deactivation, Airbnb again offered the possibility of staying in one of these rooms in Conxo’s house. As could be seen in the ad, the property reported the existence of “police-connected security cameras,” one outside the building and the other two “outside the building.” . According to Pedro, these cameras were “those which had been indicated to me as not working” and are located “in the common areas of the house: entrance, landing and kitchen”.
At the time of closing this information, one day after the first investigation, Airbnb had still not responded to the questions in this editorial. However, as of Wednesday morning, the announcement is no longer accessible from the platform.
