And the reason why it never affects them personally is that the people watching those cameras (if they even do watch them, or just wait until an incident is recorded) have no interest in the personal lives of or gossip related to the people they’re watching. When something is your job, you lose interest pretty quickly.
In this situation, however, we would have a boarder who personally knows all of the people they might be watching or listening to. Barns tend to be a gossipy environment where boarders develop an interest in what other boarders or barn workers get up to. Whatever the intention of the camera-installing boarder might be, it still comes across very differently from a camera monitored by someone who has no skin in the game.
I’ve boarded at two barns with cameras (one had it in the barn and one had it in the arena). I honestly didn’t feel as comfortable in either of those places as I have elsewhere, since in the back of my mind I was never sure if someone was watching while I just wanted to relax at the end of the day and not worry about looking or sounding silly while doing stuff with my horse.
I understand that there are valid reasons to want a camera installed (monitoring for tack theft, keeping an eye on novice riders in the arena, foaling cameras, etc.), but I also think it’s understandable for some people to want to be in a place where they feel like they have privacy.
First you need to look at your jurisdiction for laws. In the US that is state level. Useless to trade hearsay about laws here
Second, the big deal with cameras is who monitors the feed and what it’s used for. Most barn managers are only going to use it retroactively for insurance etc
In my province a condo strata council was using CCTV to fine members for trivial infractions in common areas of the building (like dog in lobby?). The court made them drop the fines and stop monitoring residents.
There may be labor law about monitoring employees.
Anyhow no BM wants a boarder monitoring feed and clean and turnout times with a camera. As others have said if you don’t trust the barn it’s time to move.
Privacy issues aside…has OP even asked if management would allow an electronic device to be installed? Where would it plug in or would it need to be wired in? All moot if owner says no.
Rechageables are powered by Lithium batteries.
Google Lithium Battery fires in portable devices resulting in fires that must be drowned. Fire extinguishers, other then H2O, wont put it out. Research how often these fire occur. Really. Why put one in a potentially high flammable environment? I don’t want one anywhere near my horse in an average boarding barn.
Reading this makes me glad that my boarding operation has scaled way down. Bad enough dealing with paranoid people just discussing every little detail about Dobin’s daily routine. Explaining that the little scratch isn’t life threatening. I wouldn’t want to be recorded during my daily chores. I sometimes use some colorful language that I wouldn’t want anyone to hear just my way of coping.
If a boarder wanted to put up a camera in my barn I would suggest that they would be happier boardinng elsewhere.
Any boarder of mine who tried this without my permission (which they would not get) would be off the property with their camera and their horse as quickly as I could possibly accomplish it.
They might not be breaking a law, but they sure as hell would be breaking my rules.
My BO recently mentioned putting them in for safety. When the barn was built (recently), the intent was for there to be wifi/internet but it’s been lower on the list. She’s often around during daytime hours doing lessons, but I am one of a couple people now that ride in the evenings, and generally alone which she worries about a bit.
This wouldn’t bother me . If BO gets around to it, I’d definitely consider asking if I could put one in my stall even just to do a check on him before bed during the months they don’t go out overnight. Some barns around here advertise that they have them as a safety thing. I also leased at a barn that had the setup down the aisle that is mentioned upthread. That BO mainly did it because she had a Houdini and it saved her butt a couple times alerting her to movement when he would get out.
I get the whole “listening in for gossip” kind of thing and being micro-managy about turnout/stall cleaning or whatever, but having something of that nature can also be really helpful and people just need to be made aware.
Kind of like McDonalds has rules on what you the general public can do in their establishment and they can tell you that you can never come back to their establishment.
Just because the public is allowed in, does not make it not private property.
The law on the public/private thing is more complicated than can be easily set out here.
The difference between a barn with a tack shop and a zillion lesson kids/clinics/sometimes show venue could be considered “open to the public” even if on private land, whereas my barn in my backyard with a handful of boarders, that doesn’t even have a sign….all this stuff matters and makes a difference as to who you can ban, what duty of care applies, and what ADA accommodations are required. State law can differ too. It honestly isn’t that important to the discussion here but the Type A in me wants to be accurate.
Just curious, does it even matter? I have no expectation of privacy in the grocery store, and know they have their own CCTV everywhere, but I’m still not going to think I can mount my own camera on the end of aisle 3 to have a view of how deep the lines are, so I can time my visit for a lull in traffic.
@Simkie it doesn’t strongly matter for purposes of the question here, though I would think something like putting a camera on your horse at a horse show might be legal and applicable, and better than paying night check. It does matter in many other legal circumstances…I just don’t want people to think it is an easy question. It is highly dependent on the specific circumstance.
I think as we have access to more technology, questions like this will be increasingly relevant. My concern is that people unaware that it is somewhat complicated might run into a situation, horsey or not, where they are surprised as to the difficulties involved in the public/private distinction.
Yes, what an interesting question–say, the difference between putting a camera in a stall at a public venue, like a fairgrounds that’s hosting a show series, vs a private facility, owned by an individual, that’s hosting a show series.
I’d consider one a reasonable expectation, and one probably not. Although risk in either is overall pretty low, being asked to leave a show is sure a less heady outcome than being asked to leave a boarding barn!
It is so interesting. Some of it is based on what is reasonable. I tend to think that a temporary camera facing inward at your horse at any show would probably be OK…but nothing is clear.
I think we will probably at some point get objections from night check services challenging temporary cameras, because it makes them obsolete, but we shall see! I think the temp cameras would likely be cheaper for barns that show on the circuit. I know as a former working student I would have loved to get to leave at 6-7PM and do night check by camera. For people on the circuit it would make sense financially.