Thought I would evict this item. Enjoy!
"Airbnb to hand over data to N.Y." by David Streitfeld | New York Times May 22, 2014
NEW YORK —Airbnb, the apartment-sharing service, and New York law enforcement officials came to an agreement Wednesday after a dispute over rental data that lasted for the better part of a year.
Under the terms of the deal, Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, will get the information he is seeking about Airbnb hosts in New York City, but it will be stripped of names, addresses, and other personally identifiable information.
That satisfies the short-term rental company, which did not want its law-abiding hosts to be subjected to what it called a “fishing expedition” by regulators.
The attorney general will have a year to use the data to identify bad actors — hosts who are renting out large blocks of rooms in violation of local laws. If he sees suspicious activity, Airbnb is required to identify the hosts.
Starting next month, a new host will get a pop-up window on Airbnb’s site that will inform him or her that the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law prohibits apartment rentals of less than 30 days unless a permanent occupant of the apartment is present. The pop-up will also note that there are restrictions on renting out rent-stabilized and rent-controlled properties and that prospective hosts must be mindful of tax considerations as well.
Airbnb has listings in 34,000 places in 192 countries and is valued in the neighborhood of $10 billion. The listings service has been a boon to people with a spare room who need money, but it has also incited the ire of affordable housing groups, who say it is exacerbating the current crisis by taking much-needed apartments off the market.
San Francisco, among other cities, is still struggling to figure out how to regulate Airbnb.
They regulate the wrong things in this nation, and don't regulate what should be regulated. Worried about you renting a room while Wall Street runs wild and energy companies soil the planet.
Schneiderman said the deal was “a template for other places in the country where the issue has been raised.”
An Airbnb spokesman declined to comment on that point.
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