Resident outraged after learning disturbing truth about camera inside apartment building: 'I wasn't consulted on this'

People are consuming more advertising than ever, both willingly and unwillingly — from phones, to TVs, to billboards. 

Viewing an ad is one thing, but an advertising outlet watching you back is quite another, as a London tenant discovered.

In the r/ABoringDystopia subreddit, the renter explained that in the lobby of their building, there is a small billboard that plays video ads, weather information, and notices about emergencies, like a fire in the building.

They noted that there's no way to really avoid the billboards, and when they asked building management, they were told they were "necessary," specifically for fire notices.  

That would be intrusive enough, but according to the original poster, the billboards "film us and the data is sent to the advertising company who run the billboards." 

They researched who owns the billboards and found a company called 30Seconds Group. Per The Guardian, 30Seconds Group says the cameras allow them to track "occupant engagement" from residents waiting for the elevator to their apartments. 

The OP on the Reddit post noted that they "pay" for the operating costs of the billboard, something also reported by another individual who spoke with The Guardian. 

"I wasn't consulted on this, all the residents hate them," the OP wrote. 

It seems like no one can escape advertising these days. Ads are popping up not just online or on television, but in the most unexpected and intrusive places, like fortune cookies, sidewalks, and even refrigerators in the home. 

The overabundance of advertising in our lives is not only irritating, it can also lead to larger problems, like overconsumption. 

How often do you worry about having your personal info stolen? Never 😌 Sometimes 😟 Often 😨 Always 😱 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

Advertising creates an inflated sense of desire to buy an item you may not actually need and may eventually throw out after little to no use. That leads to wasted resources in creating the item, which comes with its own set of pollution problems, to additional problems once it hits already crowded landfills. 

Advertising may not be entirely avoidable, but there are solutions to the issues it creates. 

Shopping secondhand keeps perfectly usable items out of landfills while also helping people save money, as do community swaps like Buy Nothing groups, where items are offered or traded with no money exchanged.

Redditors in the comments of the OP's post offered helpful suggestions to combat the intrusive and creepy billboards in their building's lobby.

"There are definitively legal routes you can take, especially considering the filming of anyone who enters and leaves, as it is not used for security reasons," one person wrote.

Another suggested community action, writing, "Get in contact with your fellow residents, organize something. Maybe a petition."

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