Techlash and the Sharing Economy

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.

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

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/.

Figure 11. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that trust in the tech sector has fallen from 78% in 2012 to 57% in 2021 among the US public.57

More generally, the public has become much more skeptical of the impact of technology platforms on democracy—and skeptical of the gig economy in particular. High profile scandals at Uber, including the revelation of inappropriate user surveillance via a “God View” as well as the generally toxic work culture that led to the resignation of founding CEO Travis Kalanick in 2017. These kinds of scandals, coupled with growing awareness of issues like gig-economy worker labor exploitation, also left an impression on the public, tarnishing the reputation of Uber, and to a lesser, but still palpable extent, of the sharing economy sector as a whole. With the public’s calls for more government oversight over technology in the zeitgeist, local governments have felt more empowered to demand sharing economy platform data.

Perhaps this zeitgeist was relevant to the outcomes of the #NYCDontTrackMe and Airbnb’s lawsuits in Boston and New York. After incorporating some of the feedback from privacy advocates, TLC’s proposed rule change passed in public hearing, allowing the agency to enact its data sharing requirements and begin receiving additional data from ride-hail platforms.

57 West.