By Tim Sparapani:
Los Angeles is considering new regulations around Airbnb, and other home-sharing platforms, that should deeply worry anyone who cares about keeping their personal information private. If approved, the regulations would require people who rent out space via a home-sharing platform to hold on to three years’ worth of information about who rented their property for how long and at what price. The Office of Finance would have the right to inspect these records at any time.
It’s unclear exactly why the government is proposing this level of privacy invasion. The main thrust of the proposed legislation, which will eventually need to be approved by the LA City Council, is to set out guidelines and fines that would ensure a level of safety and accountability for home rentals. This market is growing quickly. According to a recent poll by Time magazine, 26% of the population has used a home-sharing service. As such, it’s not a stretch for the government to set some commonsense rules around the market and collect taxes from commercial activity.
But the invasion of privacy outlined in the Los Angeles proposal will create unnecessary risks for consumers.
Think about when you check into a hotel. If you pay with a credit card, the hotel will likely look at your driver’s license to make sure it matches the name on the card, but they don’t have to. If you pay with cash, they don’t need any kind of proof of identity. You pay your money and you get your room.
So why is the sharing economy potentially going to be held to a different standard?