Smile! You’re being secretly recorded.
Oh, the joys of privacy law! With more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel, it truly is the gift that keeps on giving… if you’re a privacy lawyer. For normal people, maybe not so much.
Perhaps it’s because of the warmer weather that’s just around the corner (don’t burst my bubble), but a privacy topic I’ve been frequently asked recently is whether there are any privacy issues with REALTORS®, or their clients, secretly recording potential purchasers visiting a property for sale. The rationale for doing so being that a recording can help protect the seller’s property.
This question can be approached from a legal point of view and from a philosophical point of view.
Law and philosophy in one blog post, you say? Tell me more!
Well, the legal point of view is that, yes, secretly recording potential buyers visiting a property without the buyers’ consent constitutes the unauthorized collection of the buyers’ personal information and raises the risk a privacy complaint could be made against the seller and/or the listing agent under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) or provincial privacy legislation.