It’s called Telus HomeSitter, a new Internet service geared primarily to residential customers, but it might be the answer for small business owners requiring an extra “eye” in their offices or stores.

That’s the claim of Telus‘ Internet services director Blair Miller, who said in an interview Thursday the new service provides “peace of mind” for companies, including those with multiple stores.

“This is a great application for small businesses,” Miller said. “It’s not a security system with third-party monitoring. But if your alarm goes off at night, HomeSitter allows you to look in and see what’s happening.

“And you can also see everything in the office while you’re away. You can keep an eye on the pulse of the business.”

B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director Murray Mollard said that businesses applying the service could run into problems with the provincial Personal Information Protection Act because it might infringe on employees’ or others’ privacy rights.

“It could run afoul of that,” Mollard said in an interview. “I think it will be very difficult for employers to set up video surveillance without justification. In a business context, there’s no doubt that if it’s monitoring employees or if it’s used to collect video images of third parties, there’s a legal obligation.

“The test involves reasonableness. And that depends on the purposes in which the information is collected and why is it being used.”

Miller replied that Telus doesn’t advise companies to use the service to monitor employees and that it’s a great way to monitor business locations after business hours. “It’s up to the business owners and the employees as to how they want to apply it.”

The new service, which was launched this week by Telus, involves a multiple video camera network that provides constant security in your home or business, Telus said.

It allows subscribers to monitor as many as four areas of their homes, vacation cabins or businesses remotely. Customers can monitor from their desk at work or from a cell phone, especially one with video streaming.

Customers could be in an office, another city or even another country and yet keep an eye on how their children or elderly parents are doing at home. The system could also be set up to notify your computer at home if there has been movement detected in your home or business, especially near cash registers.

According to a Telus news release, HomeSitter allows customers peace-of-mind by allowing them to remotely access the system through a private account via any high speed Internet connection. Viewers can view either real-time streaming video or short video files recorded automatically after a camera’s motion sensor detects movement. HomeSitter can be configured so customers can be notified by wireless phone, pager, or e-mail when motion is detected.

The system is very secure, Telus added. It uses wireless technology, so there are no wires running around the home or business.

Telus said the service builds on the Telus home networking product that was launched a few months ago.

There is 24-hour technical support and it is offered for $9.95 a month for high speed Telus customers or $14.95 or others, Telus said.

Cameras start at $249.95 each and are available from Telus.

Miller said the system is expandable, with a business able to access up to five stores at one time.

“At this point, it’s directed more at residential customers,” he added, “but we see a vast potential for applying it to small businesses.”

He said the response so far has been very good.

The Telus news release states that Telus worked with Toronto-based broadband software developer Casero to introduce the new service.

“Telus has a reputation in the industry for driving new service development that leverages its investment in broadband infrastructure,” Casero president and CEO Kevin Kimsa said in a statement.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004