Landlord Tech Watch project maps where landlords may be using tech to spy on tenants

The AI Now Institute, People Power Media, and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project today launched Landlord Tech Watch, a crowdsourced map examining where surveillance and AI technologies are being used by landlords to potentially disempower tenants and community members. The site invites tenants to self-report the types of tech that are being installed in their residences and neighborhoods, and it aims to serve as a resource to help educate about the widespread use and harms of these technologies. Owners and landlords typically purchase and install tech products and platforms without notifying or discussing potential harms with their tenants, and sometimes without even letting them know. For instance, in New York City, rent-stabilized tenants at the Atlantic Plaza Towers in Brownsville were subjected to a facial recognition security system from a third-party vendor. Elsewhere in the city, an elderly tenant in Hell's Kitchen charged that a keyless system installed by his landlord was too complicated, and feared that his movements would be tracked through the technology.