Hello Everyone, My husband and I have hosted sitters at our home in New Zealand over 2020-2022. Then became members of Trusted House sit early 2023 enjoying many sits in the UK. We are currently sitting in Australia. On the 30th Dec 2023 we left a 10 day sit in Melbourne, and need your advice… On day 2 we found a Nanny-cam on the drinks cabinet in the open plan Kitchen/dining/lounge that we had not been told about. Later on that day, being continually unnerved I turned it around to view the wall, naively thinking it was camera only. Our daughter joined us on the 24th for Christmas (which had been arranged with the hosts before the sit was confirmed). I turned the camera around on Christmas morning to show her. To our shock, the owners had activated it. Our daughter informed me that not only was it watching, it was hearing and what is more, it was recording. We all felt sick to the stomach that our very private conversations were being listened to and stored (The nanny am was banished to the laundry). We carried on loving their dog and keeping the house up to scratch, but desperately wanted out. We are 3 days into our second Melbourne sit and loving it, but are very tired from enduring the stress of being spied upon. I am gutted, sickened and angry about this abuse and breach of privacy. It has taken this long just to be able to share it with you, as I am still triggered by the ordeal. Could you please give me your thoughts and advise, I need to resolve this to gain sitter-confidence again Thank you Antoinette 
I’m sorry you had to go through that. Internal cameras, whether embedded in other things like feeders, toys etc or stand alone are unfortunately becoming far too frequent and while against the rules (and in some places against the law - I think in Victoria recording a conversation you aren’t party to is an offence but don’t quote me on that) THS doesn’t seem to do much to make HOs aware of that rule. You could report the HO to THS although I don’t know what if any actions they would take. In the future you could also ask up front about cameras before you accept a sit if you are concerned.
There are a number of other threads about cameras that might have more advice too.
Thank you B1anca, appreciate the advice
@Bunnylover so sorry for your experience. Have you raised it with home owner? Asked them directly & advised it’s against the THS rules? They may not know. I would definitely mention it in your review, which thankfully is now blind, so future sitters are aware. I also suggest reporting the owner to membership support.
@Bunnylover interior cameras are a hard NO.
External cameras are ok to have.
Please report the HO to MS.
Please state this in your review.
For future sits, feel free to ask about cameras or alexa stuff in the initial contact.
And, feel free to look around the house and unplug anything that looks suspicious and tell the HO.
On two sits I found alexa devices and unplugged them both and texted the HO.
That is creepy. So sorry for that but don’t give up on THS.
Be more empowered about the issue going forward and tell future HO about this experience and how interior cameras are not ok with you or THS policies and you will unplug such devices.
What an invasion of privacy. I hope you can talk to them and tell them it’s against the t&c and write an honest review
All I can say is I fully sympathise with the horror of seeing such a device. Such a terrible intrusion on anybody’s privacy.
I have become quite paranoid about cameras being surreptitiously located around people’s homes that I even suspected a cat toy was one on a sit just a few months back. It really spoiled the evening to think I might be being spied on.
I’m currently on a sit where there are two Echo devices and I’m not sure how exactly they work and whether or not they could be recording me. I did ask the HO if there were any internal cameras or monitoring devices in the property before I took on the sit and was assured that there weren’t.
Don’t assume we are all smart enough to know what our smart devices are capable of 
We have echos we use solely for music. I wouldn’t have a clue how to use it to spy (nor would I want to). I would hate for anyone to worry we were spying on them! I once had to ask a sitter if he was listening to Bach because my Spotify was acting weird. Freaked him out. Turned out he was unintentionally listening to my Spotify account via our echo. Now we unplug our echoes when we leave and always tell sitters to turn off/unplug anything that’s bugging them (lights on timers, etc). Mine only work when plugged in and it does no harm to unplug them so I’d think you could safely do that. It’s possible newer ones have some battery storage? You could ask the HO, or just put them in a drawer. It’s not worth your headache to keep wondering.
I’m not particularly concerned in this instance as my assessment of the HO is that they are a pretty honourable person.
Yes, I’m not surprised your sitter was a little freaked out there, even though in actuality there was nothing to be concerned about. In an age of increasing surveillance, I think people can be forgiven for being a little paranoid but yes, unplug if in any doubt and spare yourself the headache!
@Chatsetchiens We hear you. We are HOs and sitters, so in our home listing, we mention that we have Alexa things and use them only for music (we don’t have a traditional stereo or radio) and for controlling lights. We also state that we’ll unplug every one of them if the sitter prefers, no problem! We want our sitters to be comfy while in our home.
As sitters, we ALWAYS discuss cameras or audio devices during the video chat – before accepting a sit.
Frankly, I have no idea how these Alexa things could be used for spying. We have older models, anyway. Please don’t think just because a homeowner has an Alexa toy that there’s something sinister about it. For me, I just like the option to play music when I am on each floor, while for my husband, he geeks out on the controlling lights thing! LOL!
I like your transparency. I think most people appreciate the full disclosure of these things from the outset and then there are no unpleasant surprises. Your approach is the right way to go about it.
That is indeed very unfortunate and extremely invasive. I just had a simialr scenario on my current sit near Chicago. The HO failed to disclose that they had internal cameras on the listing ( against THS rules) and on our video call as well as the welcome guide. I discovered them upon reading the print out she left for me. I then texted the HO( nicely) and mentioned that is was against THS policies. She then deactivated them on her app and I unplugged them and tuned them over. I was fine with external cameras for security purposes. I will report it to member services, yet don’t know if anything will be done. The rest of the sit has been fine, however I’ll be up front on my review and only give them a 4 star since it wasn’t disclosed. I hope you get justice.
I’ve become so paranoid about my Alexa speaker monitoring me that I hardly use it. We leave it unplugged.
Your personal Alexa?
Yes, I think Alexa may have heard us mention things. Then we get ads for these things online. I’m not convinced this is a coincidence.
Thank you HelloOutThere
Google too! I don’t have Alexa or use voice activation, but I’ll talk about something and lo and behold will show up on Facebook.
So true. I was getting my hair done recently and the hairdresser was telling me all about her upcoming wedding. My phone was still tucked away in my bag. However, I’m now getting so many bridal and wedding related ads not only to my phone but my MacBook too!
Sorry for you that you had this experience. It is horrible and unnerving. I hate the idea of cameras and recording devices! I think unplugging is the way to go in the future, especially as many HOs don’t realise this includes alexa devices. Like others I also think THS needs to take more responsibility as a company in letting HOs know that this is not OK. I am worried that I wouldn’t know what some devices look like. It really is a sad state of affairs to be spied on.
This has also happened to us. We got rid of our Alexa because of this.