Would you trade your data privacy and security for housing? Thanks to the rise in real estate technologies, renters often have no choice but to hand over huge amounts of revealing information to digital third parties just to have somewhere to live. All the while we are told: trust us, we take your privacy seriously.

But recent Guardian reporting has revealed that seven popular “rent-tech” platforms have serious security vulnerabilities, leaving millions of documents containing personal information of renters exposed on the open web for years. When they were alerted to the risk, only two of the seven companies responded to say they would put additional security measures in place. Is this what taking renter privacy seriously looks like?

Renters now interact with technologies at every stage of their housing experience: from submitting applications online, to the day-to-day activities of paying rent though apps, logging maintenance requests through digital portals, and being pushed to communicate with chatbots. Some even prompt renters to pay extra to store their data for longer periods. These technologies promise increased profit for landlords and improved efficiency for real estate agents, but what about the renters?

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© The Guardian