A vendor’s camera in your building creates a privacy obligation for you, even if you never signed the contract. Several Ontario cities learned that lesson in 2025. That summer, LiveBarn cameras in municipal arenas streamed children’s summer camps without authorization.
According to CBC News, cameras in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge broadcast camp activities to LiveBarn subscribers. Kitchener said its cameras had run off-schedule since about April 14. Meanwhile, Waterloo said its streams likely ran from May 1 through July 23. All three cities pulled the cameras offline and reported the incidents to Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.
LiveBarn, a subscription platform for amateur and youth sports, told CBC the cause was “human error” at the venues. Its cameras run on motion detection, so someone must schedule blackout periods. In LiveBarn’s view, that job belongs to the rink operator or the affiliated minor hockey league.
Who controls the camera
That answer exposes the real problem. Ownership, scheduling and liability often sit with three different parties. The city owns the arena. The league books the ice. LiveBarn owns and runs the hardware.
Kitchener shows how wide that gap can get. According to CBC, the city held no direct contract with LiveBarn. Instead, the Kitchener Minor Hockey Association administered the platform inside city buildings.
Waterloo, by contrast, signed its own agreement. That contract gives LiveBarn full responsibility for the cameras, their operation and signage. Even so, Waterloo’s cameras streamed camps for weeks. A clear contract assigned blame, but it did not prevent the exposure.
Krystle Shore, an adjunct assistant professor of sociology and legal studies at the University of Waterloo, also weighed in. She told CBC that LiveBarn carries its own duty to keep cameras within their intended purpose.
Jurisdiction adds another layer. Ontario’s privacy commissioner noted that federal privacy law may govern private companies such as LiveBarn. As a result, an arena owner and its vendor may answer to different regulators.
What other operators do differently
Some facility owners have designed around the risk. The City of Calgary uses permanent HomeTeam Network cameras at select recreation facilities. Its policy limits framing to the playing surface and excludes locker rooms, stands and other public spaces. Consequently, the camera’s field of view doubles as a privacy control.
Additionally, the University of Guelph told CBC its agreement blocks out specific dates. That clause keeps its August hockey camp off the platform entirely. LiveBarn itself later told an Ontario town council that it had added new administrative controls and seasonal blackout options.
The risk extends beyond accidental streams. In Bourne, Massachusetts, rink manager John Hickey raised a Boston-area case during a local LiveBarn debate, according to Cape News. There, someone used the LiveBarn app to watch rink activity while stealing from men’s league players.
What it means for facility owners
For IT and AV managers at campuses, municipalities, and private venues, the takeaway is direct. Treat any vendor-installed camera as your own camera.
First, hold the contract yourself rather than routing it through a user group. Second, define in writing who sets schedules, who verifies them and who posts signage. Third, make “off” the default state and require activation for approved events. Finally, audit what the stream actually shows on a regular schedule.
Owners should also ask who holds the recordings. In Wellington North, Ontario, staff learned that LiveBarn would keep the footage. Therefore, any public records request would go through the vendor, not the township.
The lesson reaches past hockey. Any camera a third party runs in your building puts your name on the privacy question. Consequently, the people who manage the building need to control the schedule.
Tim Albright is the founder of AVNation and is the driving force behind the AVNation network. He carries the InfoComm CTS, a B.S. from Greenville College and is pursuing an M.S. in Mass Communications from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. When not steering the AVNation ship, Tim has spent his career designing systems for churches both large and small, Fortune 500 companies, and education facilities.
- Tim Albright
- Tim Albright
- Tim Albright
- Tim Albright
