Concern as digital billboards with cameras are installed in apartment blocks

Digital billboards equipped with cameras that film viewers’ responses to adverts have been installed in the communal areas of hundreds of apartment blocks across the UK, sparking widespread concern from residents and civil liberty campaigners. The supplier, 30Seconds Group, which aims to install the screens in 1,000 buildings by the end of the year, stated that the cameras allow them to track "occupant engagement" and gather demographic data from what they call a "captive audience" waiting for lifts.

Property company Residential Management Group (RMG), which manages installations in 126 developments housing 50,000 people, insisted that the cameras in its buildings are not activated. However, the managing director of 30Seconds Group, Jesse Liu, has previously explained the business model by saying, "All our displays are integrated with cameras so we can get the demographic data and also track the occupant engagement."

Residents have complained that their service charges are funding devices that show unwanted commercial adverts, including promotions for gambling and alcohol. Mr Nocher highlighted that there is "no ability to opt out" and expressed deep concern about the camera’s presence, regardless of whether it is currently active. 

In a statement contributing to the article, Jake Hurfur, Head of Research and Investigations at Big Brother Watch, said: "Billboards equipped with demographic scanning tech have no place in people’s homes. They are the height of surveillance capitalism.

"We should all be able to move around the buildings we live in without being scanned against our will to monitor our personal characteristics or if we paid attention to an advert, and it is even more galling that residents of some buildings have to pay to be watched."

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