Happened to me once and brought it up before they left.
At first the homeowner acted stupid like they didn’t know if it was on or not. Hours later after review with her husband she advised it was off. Regardless, I put a towel over it for our sit. Although if it was on still it was likely picking up our audio ?
So, now every sit to address this concern, during the initial zoom/FaceTime meeting I phrase it as follows.
We have only had one issue on our sits; which someone had an indoor camera. So I want to confirm with you that you have no indoor cameras at the property and await an answer. Of course we still take a good look around the home during day one of our sit. We also unplug all”Alexa” type monitors.
I am sorry and somewhat horrified to discover these sitters’ experiences and the apparent negligence (from THS and certain owners) to this justifiable concern. It’s a human rights violation - the right to privacy and personal safety. I have three UK sits coming up and I am creeped out. I’m also not sure what to look out for… This is making me think about whether I’ll continue with my subscription at all, I am sorry to say.
Honestly, the best help you can give is to write THS and let them know that their inability to keep sitter’s privacy at the forefront of their T&C with enforcement and notice to PP’s is making you rethink staying on a sitter.
A business is a business.
The more they see the source of their income get turned off by negligence the more they will take sitter’s privacy seriously.
It’s very easy to flick off a few folks raising the concern but as far as sitter retention is concerned, without sitters the site is just
Trusted house
Lol
They need the sitters part.
The issue can’t go back to being dormant. Yesterday I noticed it’s been brought up multiple times and then it dies down, we have to press until they take it seriously enough.
My apologies - I passed over your initial feedback on Monday but didn’t come back to confirm I’d done that.
I’m going to pass over the link to this thread, and follow up on what I sent on Monday, just so that the team know about this discussion. If the team come back to me with any information then I’ll be happy to pass it along.
Just so you know, if you want to give the Forum team a nudge, it’s best to tag me directly (or Mark_B if I’m on annual leave) rather than the admin tag as it’ll reach us faster.
@jenny thanks for proposing to push this discussion to your team. However, I want to add on: after reading this thread and the experiences of some of the sitters, I found myself looking at investing in anti-spyware/camera and bug sensors online (which are available to buy) as a self protective measure, but the irony of taking such action didn’t escape me. I do not think this should be on the sole onus of the sitters - THS should be adequately protecting sitters wellbeing by conducting their own due diligence with pet/home owners and by actively educating those who may cite ignorance. This may affect more than the prime sitter - what about those who travel with minors? There is a big risk factor here and it doesn’t matter how few cases THS assume it affects, one is too many frankly, so no, that’s not a good enough response. And besides, how come so many comments threads exist and it still hasn’t been acted upon… this strikes as a pretty urgent issue.
I hear what you’re saying @pimmi - especially around your point around those who travel with minors too.
The Forum team are always happy to pass along feedback wherever possible, but we can’t always promise a particular outcome, as that’s out of our hands. That being said, what matters to our Forum members matters to us, and we’ll always do our best to make your voices heard.
This discussion has been highlighted to the team, they’re aware that others exist too, and if I get any feedback I’d be happy to pass it along. I’ll be out of the office next week so if @Mark_B hears anything in that time, I’m sure he’d be happy to update the discussion if he can.
100% Agreed. Any Home Owner who does not disclose they have interior cameras to sitters BEFORE agreeing to a sit is creating an unsafe environment. NO ONE should worry if they are being watched while anywhere anytime inside a home.
We have had this experience twice. BOTH times were assured the cameras were off. Well, we tested and - they were NOT off. Felt violated. In retrospect there were two other sits where we suspected cameras were on - but we didn’t then have the technology to test for their presence. However: comments were made that seemed odd since there should have been no way of knowing we had ______. One comment was about not cleaning a room we never entered. Well, yeah, we were told not to enter it..
I have no issue with doorbell cameras or exterior garden & drive cameras.
Indoor is inexcusable.
IMHO the use of indoor cameras during a Sit should result in THS banning the HO from the site and recording the address.
Have sat for two homes where the owners switched from listing under one of a couple to the other: they said it was to take advantage of a THS promo but I wonder if it wasn’t to remove negative reviews…
@pimmi I, too, plan to buy some sort of device to check for cameras. The name of this business is NOT Trusted Homeowners.
But I’m not tech savvy, so have appreciated the couple of recommendations that have appeared on what to buy.
Yes have twice had a sit at which there were camera and of which the HO said Oh I didn’t know. Had to trust that they were turend off and one I had actually thrown a towel over it as Ididn’t trust it to be off. Idon’t think the other one was either but I was there as many people here are saying you can’t just up and leave so I don’t trust this I’m going home.
When someone asked me to change dates, I tell them I need them to approve it on the website because I won’t be insured if they don’t include it on the website and they don’t make the change. I am guessing that is true.
And I would imagine it would be true about the insurance not covering if they don’t follow the rules regarding devices inside. I would like to have proof and not just an imagining though.
Amazon changed it selects a policy recently, in March of this year I believe. This article was from March anyway. And does explain a bit about the change. I believe you have to disable the recording it will always be recording if you say the word, Alexa.
Not a device: when you are connected to a home’s Wi-Fi there are apps (on both Android & Apple) which will show you what else is “live” on that Wi-Fi. However, some homes have more than one Wi-Fi and usually a Sitter is given only one, so if there are hidden cameras, quite likely they’d be on the one you’re not given. Still, it has been helpful!
@Sarahoc type into Google or Amazon: “anti bug camera sensor” or “hidden camera detector”… something like that. They are surprisingly commonly bought by the looks of things. Unfortunately, aside from this being a THS issue, it seems hidden cameras have been found in changing rooms and hotel rooms…
Hi, I recently did a sit where there were indoor and outdoor camers. The home owner turned them off via her mobile, but I had no way of knowing, if they were turned back on again later?
