Enlarge image

Airbnb logo on a smartphone

Photo: Dado Ruvic / REUTERS

New rules will soon apply to landlords of living spaces on Airbnb.

From April 30th, security cameras will no longer be allowed to be positioned indoors.

The US company announced this on Monday (local time).

The San Francisco-based company explained that it wanted to “simplify” the rules regarding security cameras and put guests’ privacy at the forefront.

The use of outdoor cameras that cover interior spaces through windows, for example, will no longer be permitted in the future.

This is reported by the US broadcaster CNN, among others.

"Our goal was to introduce new and clear rules that clearly outline to our community what to expect at Airbnb," said Juniper Downs, the company's community policy director.

To date, cameras have been permitted in common areas, such as living rooms or hallways.

To do this, however, they must be stated in the advertisement for the residential property.

Bathrooms and bedrooms are taboo.

Guests repeatedly reported hidden cameras.

Cameras on the doorbell and noise meters are still permitted - but these must also be clearly highlighted in the display.

Probably not many providers affected

According to the company, only a comparatively small proportion of landlords are likely to be directly affected by the new rules.

If the new regulation is violated, a provider can lose their account with Airbnb.

Shortly before the turn of the year, Airbnb also announced that it wanted to increasingly rely on artificial intelligence for its offers - for example with a personalized "travel concierge".

For this purpose, the company bought a start-up from the inventor of Apple's voice assistant Siri.

Founder Adam Cheyer has had a remarkable career.

He was one of the founders of the company behind Siri, which was purchased by Apple.

After two years at the iPhone company, he worked with other Siri developers on the voice assistance software Viv.

The company was bought by Samsung and became the basis for the voice assistant Bixby.

Adam Cheyer was also part of the founding team of Change.org, the world's largest petition platform.

yikes