KEY-FOB DATA PRIVACY, P.2

Nor is there much legal guidance on what condo and co-op boards and rental landlords are and aren’t entitled to. Who has access to timestamp information of residents' comings and goings? Can a suspicious wife tell management she wants records of who's used their apartment's key fob for entry while she's away? Can management ignore that homeowner request? And how protected is this data? Is it on a network that can be accessed from the outside? Is it on anyone's mobile device?

"There aren’t clear rules there," Jacobs cautions. "You have a lot of states introducing various bills, most of which only apply to law-enforcement but some also apply to private use. The basic approach to protection is to treat unauthorized collection or access to location information the same way you would treat an unauthorized interception of a phone call. Right now it's sort of a law area of uncertainty."

Policy Basics

With all these conflicting concerns floating about, what are co-op and condo boards to do? Suggests Jacobs, "It  would be a good idea to come up with some sort of policy. One of the privacy problems that comes up in a variety of contexts is people don't know what's going on with their information, and that can lead to a backlash. Having a policy and giving residents notice of it and explaining it clearly is definitely a good idea. It should cover what information is being collected or stored and what that information could be used for. This could cover things like who has access to it or under what circumstances would people have access to it."

We'll cover data security and policy implementation in future articles. For now, it's good to let residents know you're aware of their concerns, even if they don't yet know they're concerned. Because with you or without you, they will be — and being ahead of the curve is better than being in the hot seat.

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