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Virtual 3D tours on real estate websites, such as Zillow and Redfin, allow viewers to explore homes without leaving the comfort of their couch.

Sometimes the homes in these tours are staged, but other times they contain evidence of current residents’ lives. University of Washington researchers were curious about whether personal belongings visible in 3D tours could introduce privacy risks.

The team examined 44 3D tours on a real estate website. Each tour was for a home in a different state and had at least one personal detail — such as a letter, a college diploma or photos — visible. The researchers concluded that the details left in these tours could expose residents to a variety of threats, including phishing attacks or credit card fraud.

The team published these findings Nov. 8 and will present them at USENIX Security Symposium 2023.

UW News reached out to lead author Rachel McAmis, a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, for details on the study.

What makes 3D tours more of a privacy issue than photos?

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RM: With 3D tours, it is possible to see all rooms in a house and many more angles of a room than with photos. It is also possible to zoom in on details more easily than in photos — if someone accidentally leaves out a sensitive document, such as a letter, it might be possible to read the letter from a 3D tour if the camera quality is good enough.

What are the different types of privacy issues that you found?

 

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