San Francisco Tenants Union v. Smart Rent et al.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court today to protect tenants' privacy rights from landlords who force renters to allow AI-powered surveillance technology in their homes

In multiple residential buildings across San Francisco, landlords have forced tenants to accept so-called “smart home” systems that monitor their comings and goings and other behavior. They're using tenants’ personal information to track them, potentially even profiling their behavior with AI tools built specially for landlords.

Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and our legal partners sued landlord Equity Residential and surveillance technology vendor SmartRent in San Francisco Superior Court for violating tenants’ constitutional right to privacy in their homes.