A housing provider in Concord is facing a lawsuit alleging that the electronic devices it installed inside tenants’ apartments collect more than just smoke, noise and humidity levels — instead capturing additional data that raises serious privacy concerns.
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and New Hampshire Legal Assistance filed a lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court against the Concord Housing and Redevelopment Authority (CHRA), which uses federal funds to subsidize rent and provide housing.
The suit challenges CHRA’s use of surveillance devices purchased from a private Swedish company, Mînut Inc.
“We’re suing because everyone deserves privacy in their own home. The government shouldn’t get to know if you are getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or when your morning alarm goes off just because you live in public housing,” said Maria Savarese, staff attorney at the ACLU of New Hampshire, in a statement on Wednesday. “Our state constitution is clear: we have the right to live free from government surveillance and intrusion in our homes.”
According to the lawsuit, CHRA began installing electronic surveillance devices, called Minut Monitors, in the apartments in the fall of 2024 after its board of directors approved the purchase.
One of the Minut Monitor’s features detects the number of nearby Apple devices using iOS signals. CHRA uses this data to identify whether tenants are violating their lease by having too many people in the home, the lawsuit states.
The devices also have motion sensors to record continuous motion.
“A government-installed sound meter and motion sensor hovering near your bed should be the stuff of dystopian science fiction, but it is reality in Concord. Public housing residents shouldn’t have to choose between becoming homeless and being subjected to constant electronic monitoring inside the privacy of their own homes,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project in a statement. “This case happens to rely on the robust protections of the New Hampshire Constitution, but landlords across the country are now on notice: subjecting your residents to this chillingly invasive surveillance will land you in court.”
CHRA has “amassed hundreds of millions of data points” from inside tenants’ apartments; this data can be reviewed by staff under a contractual agreement CHRA has with Minut Monitors, the lawsuit states.
Plaintiffs are asking the court to order CHRA to delete all the data collected by the Minut Monitors and to issue a preliminary injunction stopping CHRA from punishing any tenant over lease violations tied to those monitors
CHRA could not be reached immediately for comment.
