Highlights
- 30Seconds Group plans to install camera-equipped billboards in 1,000 buildings by end of 2025.
- RMG has installed screens in 126 developments housing 50,000 people.
- Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch calls the technology "creepy as hell".
Digital billboards fitted with cameras to monitor residents' responses to advertisements have been installed in hundreds of apartment blocks across the UK, prompting privacy concerns from civil liberties campaigners and residents.
The supplier, 30Seconds Group, has installed the electronic noticeboards all equipped with cameras in communal areas, telling potential advertisers the devices can track "occupant engagement" from residents who form a "captive audience" while waiting for lifts.
The company is on course to install the screens in 1,000 buildings by the end of this year, with plans to reach 2,000 sites by the end of the next year. The devices are currently operational in commercial and residential buildings across 20 UK cities.
Jesse Liu, managing director of 30Seconds Group, explained to tech news site Business Cloud "Our strongest selling point is that we know who our audience is. All our displays are integrated with cameras so we can get the demographic data and also track the occupant engagement."
The Residential Management Group (RMG), owned by Places for People, in a statement to The Guardian confirmed it had installed the billboards in 126 developments housing 50,000 people. However, the company insists cameras in its buildings are not activated.
Residents push back
Conor Nocher, 32, who lives in Colindale, north-west London, complained that part of his £209 monthly service charge funds the devices showing unwanted advertisements. Installation costs of £800 and annual running costs of £2.60 per resident are covered by service charges, according to emails from RMG.
"Allowing crypto companies and alcohol and gambling to advertise within residential properties seems absurd and really inappropriate," Nocher told The Guardian. "There's no ability to opt out. You're stuck with it."
Images shared online show the billboards displaying promotions for drinks companies, lottery syndicates, non-fungible tokens, and cage fighting events.
An RMG associate director confirmed in an email to Nocher that "residents were not formally consulted, nor is there a requirement for us to do so in this case". The company said only building owners were consulted.
Jake Hurfurt from Big Brother Watch described the noticeboards as "creepy as hell", adding "Billboards equipped with demographic scanning tech have no place in people's homes. They are the height of surveillance capitalism."
A Places for People spokesperson defended the screens, stating their "primary purpose is to function as digital noticeboards, providing real-time updates in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible way". The London Fire Brigade reportedly praised the screens as useful for quickly disseminating information.
Last year, RMG removed two digital billboards from the Grade II*-listed Park Hill flats in Sheffield following resident objections about the screens being visually "out of keeping" with the building's design and concerns over cameras.
