A man is suing in a class action complaint filed today after he discovered that he could see and hear into neighbors' homes, and vice versa, by way of a common baby monitor.
Wes Denkov says that six months after he purchased the "Summer Day and Night Video Monitor" to monitor his infant son, his next door neighbor and parent of newborn twins informed him that the video and audio from Denkov's monitor was being received on the neighbor's monitor.
According to the complaint, when the neighbor's unit was on a particular channel, Denkov's baby's room was completely visible and all conversation within the room could be heard by the neighbor. The complaint also states that Denkov and his wife would enter the baby's room at all hours of the day and night and his wife would often breast-feed the baby in the room.
Continue reading after the jump, including the complaint.
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6 Comments
Megan Cottrell said:
If you go to the baby monitor section of Target, there are like four monitors that cost $30-40 bucks. Then there are another set that cost $60 to 80, all marked "more channels for better privacy."
When I bought my friend hers for a shower, we both laughed over the idea of privacy. Like someone was really keen on listening to baby Ida's cries...
I'm trying to be understanding, but really, this suit is ridiculous, and a waste of the court's time. Buy a new baby monitor, dude. And move on with life!
Carrie Kirby said:
I also experienced hearing what was going on in neighbors' homes via an audio monitor, and it was pretty creepy. These things may be meant for monitoring a sleeping baby only, but they are often left on. While I was trying to monitor my baby's nap, I also picked up tons of adult conversation in the other house (I don't think my cheap one had channels at all or if so only 2).
Video makes it creepier and I agree that people should be warned when they see these products that they are broadcasting a video/audio feed from their homes that may be picked up outside their home. Parents might be ok with that or not but they should know to at least remember to turn it off before they sneak a quickie in the nursery (Hey, parents have to grab the opportunity whenever it arises!)
borg said:
I think the average person familiar with baby monitors realizes you're cheaply broadcasting a signal interceptable outside of your home as well as in it. It's just that those using them happen to opt for a possible loss of privacy for the convenience factor. We also assume that if our neighbors happen upon our signal, they'll politely change the channel. This would be the primary reason I've never used a video monitor, however. If I wanted video in my house, I'd use wired I think. And then turn around and put it on the web. For the fun.
anthony bozeman said:
He suing for what this lawsuit is stupid and needs to put in the cold case file and lock it.
borg said:
It is the users fault for not reading the instructions.
Here is a ‘pdf’ of the instruction sheet that comes with this model…
http://www.summerinfant.com/instructions3/02184%20Day%20&%20Night%20Video%20Monitor%20.pdf
Page three says…
“Nursey minitors use public airwaves to transmit signals. This monitor may pick up signals from other monitors or similar devices and signals broadcast by this monitor may be picked up by other recievers.”
Easdoesit said:
Another baseless lawsuit. The warnings on this particular video monitor reads "Nurseruy monitores use public airwaves to transmit signals. This monitor may pick up signals from other monitors or similar devices and signals broadcast by this monitor may be picked up by other receivers". Pretty clear to me! One time my neighbor's garage door opener kept opening my garage door. I reset my code to prevent this. I guess I could have sued Sears instead.
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