![handle is hein.journals/injlaseq9 and id is 1 raw text is: SYMPOSIUM
Sharing Data in the Sharing Economy:
Policy Recommendations for Local Governments
Beatriz Botero Arcila
INTRODUCTION
Firms that offer services and goods in the sharing economy gather immense
amounts of data about what people do in cities. So-called sharing economy firms
take advantage of urban agglomeration-the fact that in cities there are many
people and things close to each other-to match supply and demand and make the
provision of many urban services hyper-efficient and convenient.1 This is possible
through data collection and analytics. By doing so, the so-called sharing economy
has also transformed life in cities-how people move and shop and often how they
work and travel.
Local governments looking to crack down on illicit activities by these firms
like short-term rentals or surpassing vehicle caps-and to enhance their own
decision-making processes, are starting to request user and operational data from
sharing economy firms under their jurisdiction. Access to this data enhances the
local government's capacity to understand the sharing economy better and enforces
existing regulations that are applicable to the firms providing these services. The
data would also increase the local government's planning and oversight capacities
in general, allowing them to understand local social and economic phenomena
better, sometimes amplified by sharing services themselves, like traffic congestion,
rising housing prices, or so-called gig work.2 This, in turn, allows local governments
to make better policies to plan for safer and friendlier streets, improve mobility,
improve worker safety, and, generally, improve quality of life in cities.3 As noted in
a 2019 Wired article titled Airbnb Starts to Play Nice with Cities, some main
sharing firms, like Airbnb, also hand in that data voluntarily.4 As the article put it,
[t]he short-term rental startup has settled lawsuits with Boston and Miami
Beach, agreeing to turn over data officials say they need to police the industry.5
However, data sharing between local governments and sharing economy
firms raises legitimate privacy concerns. Much of the data collected by sharing firms
i See Nestor M. Davidson & John J. Infranca, The Sharing Economy as an Urban Phenomenon, 34 YALE L. & POLY REV.
215, 218-19, 227 (2016); see also David Rauch & David Schleicher, Like Uber but for Local Government Law: The Future
ofLocal Regulation of the Sharing Economy, 76 OHIO ST. L.J. 901, 940-41 (2015) (noting that sharing economy firms
improve the manner in which urban agglomeration operates, and connect a city's myriad buyers with its myriad sellers.).
2 I use gig work to refer to the kind of part-time work that is facilitated by platforms.
3 See NACTO and IMLA Guidelines for Managing Mobility Data, NACTO, https://nacto.org/managingmobilitydata/ (last
visited Oct. 19, 2020).
4 Paris Martineau, Airbnb Starts to Play Nice with Cities, WIRED (Aug. 3, 2019, 7:00 AM),
https://www.wired.com/story/airbnb-starts-play-nice-cities/.
5 Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/injlaseq9&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most