Similarly in 2018, in response to New York City’s Local Law 146 that included data sharing requirements for short-term rental platforms, Airbnb and HomeAway sued the city52. Airbnb also sued Boston that same year over a more narrowly tailored data sharing provisions in its short-term rental policy,53 calling those provisions “Orwellian”54. In both cases Airbnb cited privacy of its users and of its proprietary business information55. If the model of data sharing only under platform terms was going to end, clearly it would not end without a fight.
Techlash and the Sharing Economy When Uber and Airbnb first hit the scene in 2009, we were in a very different cultural environment. Many residents felt lucky or even grateful to have sharing economy platforms operating in their cities, and were hesitant about, if not outright critical of attempts by local governments to interfere with the arrival of desired services like app-based ride-hail and short-term rental. But since 2012 when the first local government platform data sharing mandate was enacted in California, the events of the “techlash”, including national news stories about personal data leaks and misinformation at platforms like Facebook have eroded such positive sentiments: according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in the tech sector has fallen from 78% in 2012 to just 57% in 2021 among the US public.56
30
52
Botero Arcila, “The Case for Local Data Sharing Ordinances.”
53
Botero Arcila,
54
“Airbnb Sues Boston Over Short-Term Rental Rules,” accessed April 24, 2022, https://www.wbur.org/ news/2018/11/13/airbnb-boston-lawsuit.
55
Botero Arcila, “The Case for Local Data Sharing Ordinances.”
56
Darrell M. West, “Techlash Continues to Batter Technology Sector,” Brookings (blog), April 2, 2021, https:// www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2021/04/02/techlash-continues-to-batter-technology-sector/.
Towards Urban Data Commons? On the Origins and Significance of Platform Data Sharing Mandates
