Did your owners use survey caméras?

Sitters
#1

In France law is very strict. Employees (helps, Au pairs, I guess sitters as well) can’ t be filmed where they work, where they rest. Cameras can be put only facing entrances or exits, garages of non public buildings. Only for security reasons.

Have you ever been filmed indoors ? Did owners warn you before you arrived ?

We’ve been filmed in England : outside, there were cameras all around the house. The owners warned us on their departure. I wondered whether they watched the vidéos when they went back (or already from where they were gone ? on a computer, a cell phone ?).

Did they want to check at what time we went outside to feed the poultry, how many times we had left the dogs inside (they could stay outside free as long as we were with them) and for how long…
I did not ask them why they had not switched them off, they were really charming, but we wondered how long they had kept the videos ? 1 month ? 1 year ? They did not tell.

I could understand cameras were important for them, it was a huge home, a huge park with no fence at all (only a “ultrasons” fence for the 3 dogs : with their collars “ultrasons” as well, they could not go outside the limits of the property

Result ? Although the home was remote, we never went outside undressed… even in pyjamas

#2

We’ve come across security cameras twice. Once, the owners did not tell us about the camera (just one, in the living room). They said we could turn it around to face the wall when we asked, as it was just a puppy cam to keep an eye on their pets when they weren’t at home, and since we were at home most of the time, they didn’t need it. The other time was a sit that got cancelled due to covid, but the owners were very candid and up front, they showed us on video where all the cameras were, and explained that they were turned just to face external doors for security reasons. They lived in a city and it helped with their homeowners insurance to have a security system installed. The cameras wouldn’t be facing to where we were hanging out.

We personally would not house sit in a place where cameras are watching the interiors, I would feel on edge all the time and not comfortable in the home. Like you mentioned, I’d be wondering how long the videos were kept for and if they were watched by the owners! Not like we have anything to hide, but it would feel super weird to feel like we were being watched. So we just avoid any sits like that.

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#3

Problem is when yhou discover that once arrived…

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#4

That’s why we now always ask directly when we have a video chat if there are cameras - lesson learned!

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