[Policy] [Film] City-level solutions to the abuses of landlord surveillance

I am collaborating with &Roses and the Anti-Eviction Lab on city-level policy solutions to the creeping rise of landlord tech in New York City – including in-building camera systems, facial recognition, biometric entry, and other right-violating technology installations. We are collecting testimony from low-income tenants who have been subjected to surveillance without their consent – including residents of Taino Towers in East Harlem – one of the first affordable housing blocks to have facial recognition installed. Our interviewees so far have largely been aware that 'security' installations in their buildings are for the landlord's benefit, not theirs. They have also reflected on how landlord tech contributes to the affordability and housing crisis by weakening their negotiating position and accelerating the replacement of lower-income residents with higher-income residents – the latter group often seeing cameras as an amenity in a neighborhood they deem unsafe. Most importantly, our interviewees, like the many others who've had surveillance systems imposed on them, seek protections and enforcement of basic rights from the city and state.

An abridged policy memo directed at the NYC Mayoral Administration follows. The footage collected will be included in the Anti-Eviction Lab's oral history initiative later this year.

Agenda Extension: Cracking down on rights-violating landlords

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This memo recommends strengthening the campaign’s tenant protection agenda, by taking on the creeping, largely unregulated rise of landlord-serving technology in residences across the city. Along with strategic neglect and harassment, in-building surveillance is an instrument for accelerating displacement and automated gentrification. A small extension to an existing platform policy (Protecting New York's Tenants) – centered around transparency, granular consent obligations, and practicable power to opt-out – would equip New Yorkers with a comprehensive defense against the corporate landlord playbook.

Background
Residents all over NYC are being surveilled in their own homes via ‘Landlord Technology’; including but not limited to CCTV, facial/voice recognition, biometric authentication, and smart access systems. Tenants hold no practical or legal power to opt-out, nor prevent footage and sensitive data being used against their interests. Despite the absence of official datasets to quantify the full extent of tech-enabled abuse, there is evidence of live feeds being shared with the NYPD [1], minor lease violations caught on camera strategically leveraged to fast-track evictions [2], and a trend towards full-scale monitoring and regulation of tenant life.
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As part of an planned overhaul of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, we recommend extensions to the administration’s agenda; to grapple with the creeping proliferation of landlord technologies, reel in the extra power conferred to corporate landlords via the unfettered harvesting of sensitive data, and establish tenants’ rights to opt-out from non-consensual installation of surveilling technologies in their most private of spaces. We propose two complementary policies; (1) extending the MOPT mandate & (2) proposing & sponsoring legislation.
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(1) Extend the MOPT Mandate
In concert with the DOB & HPD, the MOPT will design and sponsor the creation of a mandatory registry for all existing and new installations of CCTV, biometric and smart key systems in residential buildings, forcing building managers to disclose the extent, use and destinations of footage/data. This initiative would be modeled upon the design and legislative passage of the Short-Term Rental Registration law.
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Example language for (1) platform pledge: The Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants will conduct a citywide study into the abuses of unregulated surveillance & biometric systems, uncovering, collating and tracking its use in eviction proceedings, housing discrimination, police raids, and deportation orders.

‍(2) Sponsor Legislation to Bolster Tenant Rights
The administration would propose and sponsor legislation to:
i. establish tenant rights to opt-out of surveillance apparatuses being installed in their buildings
ii. require explicit case-by-case consent for any and all third-party access, including NYC Housing Court, the NYPD and tenant screening platforms.
iii. establish a right of action for violations of i. & ii., or if tenants are harassed, blackmailed, threatened, evicted, or forced in any way to acquiesce.
These new laws would build upon the TDPL’s provisions to apply beyond the narrow case of keyless access systems. These policies could also be part of an extension to Pierina Ana Sanchez's bill – Limiting the use of facial recognition technology in residential buildings – similarly going beyond biometric recognition tech and the narrower definition of 'smart access systems' to include camera systems that capture sensitive data.

Example language for (2) platform pledges: 
‍Stop Spying on NYC’s Residents in their Homes
Prevent In-Building Surveillance Being Used Against Tenants
Support Tenants Against In-Building CCTV Being Shared with the NYPD & Eviction Courts

Additionally, the proposed policies could be supplemented by the establishment of a specialized legal support network for affected tenants, bringing together housing attorneys and civil rights experts. In the context of NYCHA and city-owned/leased properties, the administration may also choose to institute a moratorium on surveillance system installations and a total ban on the procurement of facial recognition and biometric technology.

[1] Reliant Safety’s Law Enforcement Liaison technology continually collects in-house evidence, placing residents in a ‘perpetual prison line-up’. Reliant Safety tech is deployed in over 20,000 units nationwide, including a ‘state-of-the-art’ facial recognition system installed in affordable housing in the Bronx.
[2] 5 Ways to Maximize Evictions (NYC Multifamily)‍.
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