The New South Wales Tenants Coalition is calling for national reforms to crack down on misleading rental ads after state governments have introduced new laws in response to the increasing use of artificial intelligence in real estate.
The law, released Sunday, requires mandatory disclosure if images in rental ads are changed to hide obstacles and mislead the rental applicant.
The state government cited examples of real estate agents using artificially generated furniture showing double beds in their bedrooms to attach one single on the list or digitally modify photos to obscure property damage.
The new law aims to stop unnecessary collection of personal information in order to protect renters' personal data.
Approximately a third of NSW rents homes, and the state government estimates that around 187,000 identifications were collected from state renters each week, from requesting personal photos and social media account details to revealing the number of tattoos the applicant had.
If the bill passes through Congress, a standard rental application will be introduced to clarify information that cannot be collected.
Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive of NSW's coalition of tenants, said “all Australian tenants” should be granted these protections.
“It was a rental sector, and it had little protection for rentals where renters were often vulnerable and pressured to find new homes,” said Ross, who helped consult with the bill.
“There have been some progress in standardizing the application process in other states, but we have taken into consideration the entire scope of the way information is collected, or at least the operation has been disclosed to ensure that the advertisement is a genuine representation of the property being offered.”
Ross said the use of fake photography has become a “increasing frustration” for many amid the growth of AI and digital manipulation.
“The misconception of visiting an inappropriate property can be frustrating for future tenants and may mean they have missed out on other properties,” he said.
“But it also risks inflated the number of people who appear to be interested in the location, and inflated the rent itself by rushing to put in an application or putting pressure on someone to exceed the rent that has been advertised.”
Ross said, like AI and embedded networks, the government should consider other important information that could mislead or significantly change people's interest in property.
“Landmarks should disclose at the advertising stage the age of the photographs used, repairs and other compliance history, energy efficiency performance, and more.
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Anoulack Chanthivong, Minister of Better Regulation and Fair Trade, said tenants are “right to dignity and privacy when they live in a rental property, which also extends to their personal information.”
“These reforms are a very common sense solution to a very realistic problem for people in the rental market, and we hope that other states and territories will follow the NSW lead,” he said.
“Regulatory reform is a continuous journey, and of course, we are constantly looking at options to improve consumer protection in the real estate market.”
Companies for agents and landlords will be fined $49,500 if they break privacy rules under the new law and for breaking $11,000 against an individual. Individuals will be fined $5,500 or $22,000 on the company for the private disclosure of misleading or altered photos.
NSW rental commissioner Trina Jones said cyber violations and data theft were “major privacy risks” to information collected and maintained by individuals and businesses.
“In Australia there are cyber violations reported every six minutes,” she said. “Renters don't need to trade privacy just to find a place to live.”
Tim McKibbin, chief executive of NSW's Real Estate Research Institute, said agents often need to collect some personal information for the purposes of real estate transactions, including housing rentals.
However, he said that when it no longer exists, the information needs to be deleted. He said uploading photos that do not accurately represent the property is a “false and misleading” practice.
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