Airbnb will quickly ban hosts from watching their friends with indoor security cameras, as the corporate is reversing course on its surveillance insurance policies.

As of April 30, hosts around the globe should take away indoor cameras and disclose different outside monitoring tech to friends earlier than they ebook. Airbnb beforehand allowed hosts to put in safety cameras in frequent areas of a house, like hallways and residing rooms. But it additionally required hosts to reveal them, make them clearly seen, and hold the cameras out of locations like sleeping areas and loos.

Still, the cameras have been a difficulty. Guests have reported encountering hidden cameras of their short-term leases. For hosts, the cameras could be a option to discourage friends from throwing large parties or to cease the gatherings earlier than they turn out to be too disruptive. It’s a large enough concern that several companies have began making noise monitoring tech, billing themselves as options to guard short-term leases.

But friends see them as an invasion of privateness—a watching eye intruding on their trip.

“We’re really grateful that Airbnb listened to those of us pushing back and calling for them to actually put safety and privacy first,” says Albert Fox Cahn, founder and government director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a pro-privacy group.

In its announcement, Airbnb mentioned that almost all of its listings don’t point out a safety digital camera, so the rule change might not have an effect on most listings. Vrbo, one other short-term rental platform, already banned using visible and audio surveillance within properties.

Airbnb says it’ll examine reported violations of the rule, and will penalize violators by eradicating their listings or accounts. But this coverage might battle to deal with the digital camera downside at massive, as the corporate has already required hosts to reveal the indoor cameras, and friends have typically reported hidden and undisclosed cameras.

The new guidelines additionally require hosts to open up to friends whether or not they’re utilizing noise decibel screens or outside cameras earlier than friends ebook. Both are utilized by some hosts to observe properties for events, which have continued to deliver noise, damage, and danger even after Airbnb instituted a celebration ban and employed new anti-party tech to attempt to stop revelers from reserving on its website. Airbnb will even prohibit hosts from utilizing outside cameras to observe indoor areas, and bars them from “certain outdoor areas where there’s a greater expectation of privacy,” reminiscent of outside showers and saunas, it says.

“This just emphasizes the fact that surveillance always gives a huge amount of power to whoever controls the camera system,” says Fox Cahn. “When it’s used in a property you’re renting, whether it’s a landlord or an Airbnb, it’s ripe for abuse.”