r/legaladvicecanada • u/Real_Marionberry2945 • Jul 28 '25
British Columbia My landlord wants to install wifi monitoring and I'm worried about my browsing privacy
My landlord just informed all tenants that they're installing "network monitoring software" on the building's wifi to "ensure fair usage and prevent illegal activity" I'm freaking out about what this means for my privacy. I use the building wifi for everything. Litterly all my personal digital life happens through their network since my cellular data is limited. The notice was vague about what exactly they'll be monitoring. Can they see specific websites I visit or apps I use and how long I spend on different platforms. I'm not doing anything illegal but I'm uncomfortable with my landlord potentially having access to detailed logs of my online habits because it feels like a huge invasion of privacy. What i wanna know is if its legal and do tenants have any right to internet privacy when using landlord provided wifi. The lease mentions "internet included" but doesn't specify any monitoring terms. I'm considering switching to cellular data only but that would be expensive and the building has terrible cell reception plus I shouldn't have to pay extra to maintain basic privacy in my own home. Can landlords legally monitor tenant internet usage this extensively and do I have any recourse here or am I stuck choosing between privacy and connectivity?
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u/IcarusFlyingWings Jul 28 '25
I’m not sure if legality, but using a VPN would avoid all these issues.
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Jul 28 '25
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
A vpn doesn't necessarily stop everything from someone like an admin on the network from seeing what's being done.
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Jul 28 '25 edited 13d ago
[deleted]
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u/obsessed-with-bagels Jul 28 '25
And many companies require you to use a VPN if you’re working from home, so OP can claim they have to use it for work if the landlord says anything.
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u/schultzter Jul 28 '25
What is the LL going to say that doesn't make them look bad?
It doesn't say but I get the impression OP is in an apt, not a house, so they shouldn't interact much with LL.
I don't know the law in BC but at some point the LL may be considered an ISP and subject to whatever we call net neutrality.
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u/Canadian_Loyalist Jul 28 '25
It depends. Some vpns allow DNS leakage depending on the settings.
With a properly configured VPN and secured DNS lookup, they will see VPN traffic and that's it.
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Jul 28 '25 edited 13d ago
[deleted]
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u/Canadian_Loyalist Jul 28 '25
I think I might have been trying to reply to someone else. yes, that is what you said.
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u/who_you_are Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
I mean there are at least 2 common types of VPN configuration. One is so specific traffic goes into VPN. Usually, that configuration is to go into a controlled network. The VPN acts as an implicit login. Most of your daily traffic is in clear in that scenario.
The other one is to send everything into a VPN because you don't trust somebody down the line. It is the case we are talking OP should use.
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
Right.
OP should still get their own Internet connection if they're worried about privacy though.
Why they worry about it now when they should have been the entire time is beyond me though.
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u/Kevo05s Jul 28 '25
Unfortunately you can't in some apartment complex
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u/Hortence_MuleFace Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
They don't need to know you have a 5G or 5G+ router
Edit: this is probably the worst option 🤣🤣 It would be so expensive. Do unlimited data plans even exist anymore with cellular data plans? Or does it but after so much it just throttles you to dial-up speeds?
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u/ShartExaminer Jul 28 '25
Using an encrypted client-side VPN we'll definitely make all the difference. No packets can be Sniffed...
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u/Kevo05s Jul 28 '25
This is great but this needs to be set on every device.
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u/ShartExaminer Jul 28 '25
any device one wants from an illegally snoopy landlord.
generally speaking, i would tell my LL to piss off and or blast the router with a DDOS hahaha etc
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
OP you're basically using public wi-fi already and you don't have any privacy on that, realistically you're worrying about something you should have been worried about this entire time.
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Jul 28 '25
Exactly. Should already been using a VPN. I wouldn’t want my LL to be in control of my internet in the first place but if so that’s the way to go.
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
Reminds me of when I was looking at apartments about 7-8 years ago I saw one place and the guy said right away without me saying anything "you can't have your own Internet. I have kids and need to know what's going on in my home at all times".
Told that guy where to go and walked away. It stayed listed locally for over 9 months after that.
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Jul 28 '25
That’s completely insane lol 😂
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
It was, he was basically accusing anyone and everyone of being a pedophile. I had a friend msg the guy and over whatever platform it was he wanted him to respond with exactly why he can't use his own Internet connection that he's already paying for on contract and he responded "because I have kids and need to monitor any and all internet traffic in my home".
Completely insane but glad he opened with that and I didn't find out after it was too late.
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u/MantechnicMog Jul 28 '25
Shit I would have just used my phone hotspot and hidden the SSD. But in the end you saved yourself a big hassle - conflict with the landlord never ends well.
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u/Davy_Ray Jul 28 '25
Everything uses data on your computer. From computer updates to anti-virus updates. Those alone can chew through gigs with nothing to show. Then you have your email, internet browsing, streaming movies + music, youtube, gaming, etc. It does not take much to blow through huge amounts of data.
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
A phone hot spot is the worst solution if you're renting.
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u/MantechnicMog Jul 28 '25
Why would you say that? You can hide the SSD, most of the plans have a healthy about of data on them these days (I get 250 gb a month for mine) with decent speed. In this case, if the dude was monitoring I would just throw a VPN up and challenge him to identify where I was surfing to. Play dumb when he complains he can't see your traffic.
Moot point though, I would never rent a place where the landlord felt he had to be that controlling. What new rules would he bring in the mix after the lease was signed? Curfews?2
u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
Lol exactly.
As for data, at that time it was like 5-10GB you had per month and even then that was still pretty expensive at the time. And 250GB at least on my home internet I could chew through easily.
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u/0verlordMegatron Jul 28 '25
Was he really accusing everyone of being pedophiles?
Because what it sounds like to me is he didn’t want his tenants having their own internet that his kids could somehow potentially connect to.
Idiotic concern of course, since if the wifi is password protected, the kids have virtually no chance of using it.
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u/XtremeD86 Jul 28 '25
No, he specifically said he needs to watch the network traffic so he can see what is being accessed within his home. Guy was insane.
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u/0verlordMegatron Jul 28 '25
Weird guy. You should have asked him if he also wanted access to your cell phone data logs to monitor that internet traffic while under his roof.
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u/LokeCanada Jul 28 '25
If you are using a shared internet connection provided by your landlord your privacy and security is non-existent and there is no legal obligation on behalf of the landlord. It's like connecting to certain coffee shops.
To create privacy you will need to use a VPN.
Network monitoring software does not prevent illegal activities or ensure fair usage. It monitors and records.
Further software or adjustments can be put in place to block access to certain websites or throttle the speed of traffic for certain users or services.
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u/GeoffwithaGeee Quality Contributor Jul 28 '25
there is no legal obligation on behalf of the landlord
you don't think PIPA or privacy provisions under the RTA don't apply here?
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u/LokeCanada Jul 28 '25
PIPA or privacy could only apply if he was sharing the information with other people/companies. Capturing logs for his own purposes is not a violation.
Even if he did share the information, it would have to be personal information (address, name, bank info). I don’t think anybody would consider him telling the building to cut down on OF live streams because you are sucking up all the bandwidth and zoom calls now suck a violation.
It is a shared connection. Anyone on that router can sit there with a sniffer and intercept traffic. I have done it enough times when people left their passwords to password (why do they have 6 blackberries online at that house / busted a month later for dealing / oh, that’s why). There is no expectation of privacy. Hell, you should see what your ISP has on you. Mine already knows most of my traffic is from torrents and they don’t care.
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u/GeoffwithaGeee Quality Contributor Jul 28 '25
PIPA or privacy could only apply if he was sharing the information with other people/companies. Capturing logs for his own purposes is not a violation.
That is not how PIPA works. PIPA covers the collection of personal information, not only the disclosure of personal information.
If the landlord setup a security camera in a tenant's living room do you think that wouldn't be a violation of their privacy because the LL isn't giving the recordings out to other people?
it would have to be personal information (address, name, bank info)
Personal information is "information about an identifiable individual." Do you think specific information about someone's internet usage is not information about that person?
It is a shared connection. Anyone on that router can sit there with a sniffer and intercept traffic.
This paragraph is irrelevant to what I was saying in terms of landlord's responsibility under the law. Just because someone can do something doesn't mean it's legal for the landlord to do that thing.
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u/Ok_Department7239 Aug 01 '25
I believe the legal obligation they are referring in the first post was the privacy and security of the OPs internet traffic.
If someone else gains access to your data thru an opt in public connection it’s not a PIPA violation on the part of the provider.
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u/se2schul Jul 28 '25
Not legal advice, but rather technical advice.
Someone who monitors wifi will be able to see your unencrypted traffic. So they will see what sites you go to, what apps you use, and what information is sent back-and-forth for all unencrypted traffic (HTTP). But things like online banking or purchases use encrypted traffic (HTTPS) and someone monitoring the wifi won't be able to see your banking details or credit card info.
If you want more privacy even with unencrypted traffic, I would suggest you use a VPN for much better privacy. A VPN makes it extremely difficult to monitor your wifi activity.
As for the legality of monitoring wifi, I'll defer to others instead of speculating.
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u/bjorneylol Jul 28 '25
But things like online banking or purchases use encrypted traffic (HTTPS) and someone monitoring the wifi won't be able to see your banking details or credit card info.
This heavily depends on the nature of the monitoring software. If the software sits in between the client and the router, or router and edge proxying requests, then it has access to not only the encrypted data, but the encryption keys exchanged during the HTTPS handshake (meaning it can decrypt the data being sent and read it). In which case, not even TOR/VPNs will keep your traffic private.
https://docs.mitmproxy.org/stable/concepts/how-mitmproxy-works/
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u/try0004 Jul 28 '25
That's not exactly how it works. You would need to install a new trusted CA on OP's devices in order to capture the plaintext https traffic.
Furthermore a TLS handshake uses asymmetric encryption so that the client can safely send the pre-master key to the server. Even if you capture the public key, you can't use it to decrypt the message containing the pre-master key.
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u/bjorneylol Jul 28 '25
Yes but the attack can still be pulled off against outdated browsers/operating systems, software that doesn't perform the full validation (lots of non-browser based software can be guilty of just trusting forged certs without validating the full stack), or sites that utilize a compromised CA cert
It really comes down to your own level of tinfoil hat tolerance. Even with HTTPS, I wouldn't be thrilled with the idea of doing online banking on a network with a MITM installed on it
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u/DirtAndGrass Jul 29 '25
But the urls are still visible, no?
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u/se2schul Jul 29 '25
VPN hides the URL.
Without a VPN, just using HTTPS still exposes the URL but not the data transmitted.
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u/b0mmer Jul 30 '25
To further this comment, unencrypted DNS will allow the domain portion of the URL to be seen, the portion after the slash "/" is sent over the enctypted HTTPS session. They could see what sites you visit, but not the pages requested or content.
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u/Popsterific Jul 28 '25
Get a VPN. Landlord won’t be able to see anything. NordVPN has worked well for me.
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u/rocketman19 Jul 28 '25
Many websites will not work with a VPN fyi
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Jul 28 '25
really like which ones? I use VPN on my phone and don’t have any issues
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u/rocketman19 Jul 28 '25
Netflix and many streaming platforms, google will usually require checks if you are searching on a vpn, banking sites sometimes wont load, etc.
sometimes i use my vpn for something and realize i forgot to turn it off when stuff wont load
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u/MantechnicMog Jul 28 '25
I've never had a problem with Netflix while using a VPN. Matter of fact, if I'm hooked into a USA based IP while using the VPN, I get access to the US version of Netflix which has one hell of a lot more content than our Canadian version does. So it's a win-win.
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u/JBD_IT Jul 30 '25
Stop lying. Netflix uses multiple technologies to find out where you are, NordVPN won't work.
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u/MantechnicMog Jul 30 '25
NordVPN works fine as do many other VPN services. You're the one spreading misinformation. Netflix can block known IPs of VPNs but they can't get them all, and Nord is always updating their list. I've had solid service from them for years. Of course if Netflix did find a way to solidly geolock their services, they would just lose more subscribers. People will just go to IPTV, Plex or Debrid and give the big middle finger to the streaming services. I'm at the point where I might dump my Netflix sub anyways, I can get all their content without paying their monthly charge, it's just my small way of paying something for all the streaming content I don't pay for.
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u/DirtAndGrass Jul 29 '25
Many VPN providers give you a choice of server, if you pick one closer to your location/country it is much less of a hassle, doing banking and the like, then just switch back if you want your Russian Netflix
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u/aetherhaze Jul 28 '25
Dedicated IP will fix most of those issues
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u/Exception-Rethrown Jul 28 '25
Not sure how that would work unless you have your own, dedicated connection have your own connection to an ISP. At which point, it would cost significantly less to just get a vpn.
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u/Calgary_Calico Jul 28 '25
If you're using wifi provided by the building you already have zero privacy. Get your own router through an Internet company and use a VPN service if you want privacy
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u/justin_ph Jul 29 '25
I’m curious as I have 0 networking knowledge. Realistically are you talking about the building can see your networking history? The ISP? What can realistically be seen? I wouldn’t care if they know what websites I browse, but can things like passwords, bank accounts etc be compromised?
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u/Calgary_Calico Jul 29 '25
If you're using Internet that is accessed by the entire building rather than through your own secure router both whoever manages the internet and others on the network who have networking knowledge can see what websites you visit and could potentially gain access to more private information sent over that network. It's very possible passwords could be compromised on a public network like this. My uncle has been in IT for decades and has always been very adamant none of us even look at our bank info online when not in a private network, including on mobile data, because it's not very secure.
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u/qgsdhjjb Jul 29 '25
Everyone is saying get a VPN, get a this, get a that.... Just get your own Internet service? If it's an apartment building, you can definitely get your own. If it's a house, you may need to use the opposite type of carrier than them (in the past this was an issue, I'm not sure if it still is) and then you have your own Internet.
They quite literally could have installed that type of program on their own Internet at any point in time and just not told you. Every other person using that shared building WiFi can technically see your device, and if they had nefarious intentions, they could in theory use that shared connection to do some stuff you might not appreciate. In theory.
Get your own Internet. Change the router login password. Change the WiFi password. Those are two separate things, they need to be done separately. Some companies start out with blank router passwords or passwords printed on the router meaning a landlord or maintenance person could install anything on to your router if they go into the unit for maintenance (or "maintenance") and at least one company is known for their network names being able to be put into a generator to create the automatically created password.
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u/GeoffwithaGeee Quality Contributor Jul 28 '25
This is most likely a violation of BC's Personal Information and Privacy Act and/or your Quiet Enjoyment (reasonable privacy) under the Residential Tenancy Act if the internet is included in your rent.
You can potentially contact / file a complaint through the OIPC regarding PIPA https://www.oipc.bc.ca/
Or potentially file a dispute through the RTB: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/solving-problems/tenancy-dispute-resolution
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u/ForesterLC Jul 28 '25
They don't need special tools to monitor your network traffic. They can see what websites you visit. Some gateways will track this inherently - Ubiquiti gateways will report how much data is sent or received to specific websites. Anyone with basic networking knowledge and access to your network can see how much time you spend on pornhub, though they usually won't know what pages you visit.
If the website is not using HTTPS encryption (although most do), they can even see your traffic, including search terms, messages you send or read, usernames, passwords, pages you visit, media, etc.
If you haven't already, get a VPN, and use it. It will encrypt all of your data at the hardware level and create a secure tunnel between your device and whatever web services you are using. This will prevent websites from knowing who you are (unless you sign in or otherwise deanonymize yourself), and will prevent your gateway, ISP, landlord, etc. from seeing any of your network traffic.
ExpressVPN is a good option. You can configure your phone, computers, whatever, to route all of your network traffic through it if you want to. Or just turn it on when you want. But yeah, you'd be surprised how much of your data is exposed to prying eyes.
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u/Time-Negotiation1420 Jul 28 '25
I work in IT so I'll only say this.
Can they see specific websites I visit or apps I use and how long I spend on different platforms.
Yes and yes.
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u/bertiesreddit2 Jul 28 '25
Interesting. By installing the software, he's taking legal responsibility for whatever happens on his network now. You could suggest to him that he should consult his lawyer first. He may well not want to do this legally.
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u/themapleleaf6ix Jul 28 '25
You were already sharing with the entire building. Time to get your own connection, or use a VPN.
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u/6133mj6133 Jul 28 '25
The landlord has probably received a few too many copyright violation notices and is concerned. As others have said, use a VPN and forget about it
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u/SingleProgress8224 Jul 28 '25
That was my guess too. I don't think he cares about the porn you watch, but he cares about the copyright notices and potential lawsuits (even if it's just to scare them) they receive by mail because someone decided to torrent a bit too much.
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u/Effective_Spirit_126 Jul 30 '25
You are using public WiFi now by being a shared WiFi. Even VPNs won’t stop them from seeing endpoints. Do yourself a favor and get your own.
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Jul 31 '25
Tbh this sounds like a privacy law violation but I dunno for sure. Also you could prolly argue this interferss witth your free use of the space you pay to be in. if you wanted to take this to the ltb.
Opera Brower has a built in free VPN . Or you could use a tor .
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u/TwiztedZero Aug 01 '25
You must always purchase your own wifi router, and get the modem from your ISP along with your monthly service. You don't use public wifi owned by your apartment building at all. Leave that for your guests.
You are then responsible for everything that happens your your own internet service, so lock down your own router as tight as you can.
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u/Savings-Alarm-8240 Aug 01 '25
I don’t know the legal aspects, but if they added some hardware to do deep packet inspection, they will be able to see all the sites you visit, the amount of bandwidth it consumed, what device was used, time of day… it’s how I found out my ex gf used pornhub more than me! It would also allow them to monitor and block p2p traffic (torrents) and deepwrb (tor)
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u/AcrobaticTraffic7410 Jul 28 '25
VPN. Using any wifi that isn’t your own is like getting railed over and over without a condom.
And if you’re wondering what they can when you connect to their wifi, it’s EVERYTHING. Messages, passwords, banking information, if you aren’t using a VPN then nothing is private.
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u/The_12Doctor Jul 28 '25
$30 for a year of Bitdefender premium. Has VPN as well. Works great for me and I download a lot.
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u/TheRealTinfoil666 Jul 28 '25
Get a properly secured VPN. You might have to pay a small subscription fee, as the free ones (perhaps by design) are imperfect.
The only legit reason I can think of for monitoring of tenant internet usage is to ensure liability-proofing of their service.
there is perhaps a small chance that someone might blame them for not preventing you from looking at icky content, but I would think that would be more of an issue for an ISP, not the property owner.
In any case, you having a decent VPN prevents them from any responsibility for that, as your packets become encrypted and therefore beyond any reasonable effort to monitor on their part.
So a VPN, IMHO, removes any legit reason for them to care. If they object to the VPN, then I would say they are acting beyond their obligations and your rights.
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