https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56718046 BBC Homepage * Skip to content * Accessibility Help * BBC Account * Home * News * Sport * Reel * Worklife * Travel * Future * Culture * MenuMore Search * Home * News * Sport * Reel * Worklife * Travel * Future * Culture * Music * TV * Weather * Sounds Close menu BBC News Menu * Home * Prince Philip * Coronavirus * Video * World * US & Canada * UK * Business * Tech * Science * Stories More * Entertainment & Arts * Health * In Pictures * Reality Check * World News TV * Newsbeat * Long Reads * Tech Estate agent's hi-tech house tour exposes personal data By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter Published 9 hours ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Viewers could select a room of the house to exploreimage copyright Fowlers Estate Agents image captionThe 3D tour allowed buyers to explore the rooms of the house online and zoom in on high-resolution images An estate agent has apologised after a 3D tour of a house for sale in Devon was published with a substantial amount of personal information visible. Financial paperwork in the study could be read by zooming in on the image. It included a shares dividend cheque, an insurance policy document and an invoice for a stairlift. Some family photos had also been left unblurred. Fowlers estate agent said the private data in the virtual tour had "slipped past" its staff and the home owner. The house was available on the property platform Rightmove, and appears to have been live since October 2020. Additional stills photographs of the property showed empty rooms. The firm's owner Philip Fowler told the BBC that his company had withdrawn the 3D tour along with all of its others for further review and said the estate agent "takes our clients' privacy very seriously". The owner of the home had given "verbal permission" for the video to be used, he added. "We will be more diligent in the future," Mr Fowler said. He also said that people choosing the 3D tour to help sell their properties were advised to put away sensitive material before the photos were taken. the study of the house (soft)image copyrightFowlers Estate Agents image captionThis low-resolution screenshot of the study could be seen in clearer detail when it appeared on the site Other identifiable data about the home-owners in the property included the names of their pets on a photograph (pet names are commonly used as passwords), clues about their political views based on their choices of reading material, and their health - an asthma inhaler was visible in one of the bedrooms. The BBC has alerted the Information Commissioner's Office. The video was discovered by Carole Theriault, co-host of the Smashing Security podcast, who said she was "gobsmacked" by the amount of personal information on display. "There is way too much information on show for anybody watching the 3D virtual tour to see," she said. "It's a treasure trove of private data - a veritable goldmine for identity thieves, phishers, you name it." Some family photos had been blurred.image copyrightFowlers Estate Agent image captionSome family photos had been blurred by the estate agent 3D tours have become more popular for house-sellers, especially during the pandemic. Carissa Veliz, author of Privacy is Power, said the estate agent should have taken more care. "We are much better at collecting personal data than we are at keeping it safe, but if we can't keep it safe, we shouldn't be collecting it in the first place," she said. Related Topics * Data protection * Housing market * Internet privacy More on this story * How Covid has changed where we want to live Published 19 March Top Stories * US troops to leave Afghanistan by 11 September President Biden is to announce on Wednesday US troops will leave by mid-September instead of May. 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