3 ms·

Wait - they take a photograph of your face at every building?

jacquesm 7y ago
Yep. I would never ever house my company in a building where the landlord insists on high res pictures of my visitors being taken by their systems.
- entee 7y ago
  Isn't that frequently the case though? The number of times I've walked into a building and been captured by some security camera must be enormous. Maybe the resolution is lower, but 1.) that may not matter that much, they can still recognize/have a record of you and 2.) I'm sure security cameras get better over time and eventually that's going to be high res too. As for the name<->picture mapping, many many buildings have a log book for visitors, doesn't take too much work to associate a name with video of who wrote in the book at that time. My point is that it's quite likely you've already given out tons pictures of you to the locations you visit. We-work might be more explicit, but they're not unique.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    There is a huge difference between a full-frontal face shot from a few cm away at 4K vs a frame shot on a CCTV system. Besides that the CCTV footage tends to get automatically wiped every so many days if there is no explicit reason to keep it but those WeWork mug shots will likely stay on file forever and quite possibly not in the country that you are in.
vegannet 7y ago
Yes and no. They use a guest registration system (on an iPad) that takes a photograph to send to the person who invited you on arrival so that your host knows who to look for in the shared space. You can simply choose not to stand in front of the camera (there’s a countdown) — it’s not mandatory, and certainly nobody would take issue with you opting out. I was a WeWork member for years and, as far as I know, the photos are only used in the emails to hosts. Also it’s worth noting that the same systems are used by lots of companies, especially tech companies: they go as far as taking photos to print on temporary badges. Photos of guests is certainly not unique to WeWork, most startup offices I’ve visited do it.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  I've been told very explicitly that opting out was 'not an option' and there was also zero information on what would be done with those photographs.

Yep. I would never ever house my company in a building where the landlord insists on high res pictures of my visitors being taken by their systems.

entee 7y ago
Isn't that frequently the case though? The number of times I've walked into a building and been captured by some security camera must be enormous. Maybe the resolution is lower, but 1.) that may not matter that much, they can still recognize/have a record of you and 2.) I'm sure security cameras get better over time and eventually that's going to be high res too. As for the name<->picture mapping, many many buildings have a log book for visitors, doesn't take too much work to associate a name with video of who wrote in the book at that time. My point is that it's quite likely you've already given out tons pictures of you to the locations you visit. We-work might be more explicit, but they're not unique.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  There is a huge difference between a full-frontal face shot from a few cm away at 4K vs a frame shot on a CCTV system. Besides that the CCTV footage tends to get automatically wiped every so many days if there is no explicit reason to keep it but those WeWork mug shots will likely stay on file forever and quite possibly not in the country that you are in.

vegannet 7y ago

Yes and no. They use a guest registration system (on an iPad) that takes a photograph to send to the person who invited you on arrival so that your host knows who to look for in the shared space. You can simply choose not to stand in front of the camera (there’s a countdown) — it’s not mandatory, and certainly nobody would take issue with you opting out. I was a WeWork member for years and, as far as I know, the photos are only used in the emails to hosts. Also it’s worth noting that the same systems are used by lots of companies, especially tech companies: they go as far as taking photos to print on temporary badges. Photos of guests is certainly not unique to WeWork, most startup offices I’ve visited do it.

jacquesm 7y ago
I've been told very explicitly that opting out was 'not an option' and there was also zero information on what would be done with those photographs.