Five friends and I rented a house on Airbnb in Provincetown this past summer for a weeklong Cape Cod vacation. We should have paid more attention to the note in the listing that mentioned a camera.

While it suggested it was only pointed at the entryway, the first thing we noticed upon arrival was the Nest-style camera mounted in a high corner of the open concept main floor with a little green light on. It took in the entire communal area: kitchen, dining and living room, entrance to a washroom and the stairs leading to various bedrooms up and down.

All our comings and goings, conversations, who went to the bathroom or to a bedroom, what we ate and drank, and which Céline Dion songs we sung aloud together were recorded.

It gave us the creeps so the next morning I stood on a chair and covered the camera with a tea towel. My friends and I debated what to do beforehand. Do we message the host? This was an expensive vacation for us, six friends who don’t see each other much, paid for months in advance and in a holiday town now completely booked. An argument over the camera would ruin the rest of the vacation, but leaving it on meant we were no longer comfortable in the house.

Airbnb requires hosts disclose surveillance devices in the listing and does not allow them in “private spaces” such as bathrooms, bedrooms or other sleeping areas. Over the past year there’s been many reports documenting hidden cameras and while the one in our rental was disclosed, it certainly didn’t tell us how much of our activity would be monitored.

Thresholds for privacy and comfort vary from person to person, and while we could handle the door being monitored, the shared living space was too much. The host could bring up a live video of us whenever he wanted. If out with friends, he could show them what we’re up to on his phone.

Earlier in the summer I had taken my mom on a holiday to St. John’s, N.L. We rented an apartment using Airbnb from a friendly host we didn’t meet in person who had me download August, an app that would let me lock and unlock the door with my phone. It occurred to me then that the host would know whenever we came and went, and August’s marketing boasts of its 24-7 tracking.

Other technologies, such as Amazon’s Ring, let homeowners have or listen to conversations on their doorstep. Perhaps not sinister, or even installed with ill intent, but what was once an unmonitored activity can now be surveilled and logged.

In retrospect I should have just unplugged the Cape Cod camera as the device could still record our conversations, but at the time the towel seemed like the least aggressive thing to do and I wagered because the surveillance area was so egregiously beyond what the listing implied, the host would not make an issue of it. And he didn’t while we were there but the review he left on our Airbnb profiles afterwards said that we broke the house rules and we should have remembered we are guests.

We initiated a complaint with Airbnb as it was our contention the listing wasn’t clear about how much was being surveilled and we wanted his negative review removed. Airbnb investigated but ultimately said he didn’t violate their rules. After some back and forth we were worn out and gave up. This didn’t violate any laws but Airbnb’s own rules have created a grey area in places we once expected were private. Rent a traditional hotel room and once you shut the room door you can pretty much be guaranteed it’s totally private.

I reached out to Airbnb this week with some questions and a spokesperson reiterated their camera policy and sent me a statement that read, in part, “The safety of our community — both online and offline — is our priority, which is why we take reports of privacy violations very seriously.” When asked how many hosts have been removed or warned for improper camera placement and how many have disclosed cameras, I was told they do not track this information.

Complaining about a bad review on Airbnb might seem trivial, but having it removed was more about the principle of the matter, and since our complaint, the listing on the rental has been updated with a more explicit description of what the camera monitors. A small victory, yet there are other issues.

What if the video and audio of our week was stored on the host’s computer and it gets hacked, leaking it onto the internet? While our activity varied among innocent, boring and silly, it’s an unsettling thought. When I asked about data collection and storage, Airbnb’s spokesperson told me hosts must comply with local laws and regulations and they will investigate reported violations. Still, our vacation antics could be sitting on a hard drive in Massachusetts right now.

Fairbnb Canada, a coalition that is trying to mitigate Airbnb’s ill effects on cities by advocating for regulation, hasn’t received any local, Toronto reports about cameras. Most complaints they receive and track are generally around apartments being turned into full time “ghost hotels” or tenants being forced out.

Still, they advise caution around surveillance. “We would always recommend Airbnb users scan rental properties’ Wi-Fi networks for potential spy cam set-ups and to inspect “plain sight” objects like smoke detectors, alarm clocks or motion sensors,” says Thorben Wieditz of Fairbnb Canada. “If these devices have a memory card slot, they probably have recording abilities.”

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Airbnb can be an easy way to rent properties when travelling and helps people make ends meet by earning some money off their homes when away, but cities around the world are starting to regulate them as they’re so disruptive. On Oct. 15, final arguments will be presented at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), which will decide the legality of Toronto city council’s attempt to protect the local housing supply by regulating what can be rented out and for how long.

Grey area surveillance devices also need regulation. Until then, be sure to read the fine print of any listing you’re thinking about renting.