By The Electronic Frontier Foundation
The “sharing” or “gig” economy is booming – you can get rides with companies like Uber, hire people to run errands with services like Taskrabbit, or find a place to stay on websites like Airbnb.
These companies connect people offering services to people purchasing them, and in the process they have access to vast amounts of personal data.
But how well do these companies protect your information from the government?
The sixth annual “Who Has Your Back” report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation surveyed the biggest providers in the gig economy to find out.
“These companies collect information on what you buy, where you sleep, and where you travel – whether you are offering services or purchasing them,” said EFF activism director Rainey Reitman.
“Often they go even further, collecting contents of communications and geolocation information from your cell phone.
“But are these companies respecting their users’ rights when the government comes knocking? For much of the gig economy, the answer is no.”
This year’s report analyzed 10 companies, and only Uber and Lyft earned credit in all the categories we assessed, including transparency around government access requests, advocacy on the federal level for user privacy, and commitment to providing users with notice about law enforcement data requests.
FlipKey, Airbnb and Instacart also received stars in some categories, but Getaround, Postmates, Taskrabbit, Turo and VRBO received no credit in any category.
“We see a clear trend in our report: while some sharing economy companies have prioritized standing up for user privacy in the face of government demands, many others have not,” said EFF senior staff attorney Nate Cardozo.
“This is a wake-up call to the gig economy companies and the people who use them. It’s time for these services to catch up with the rest of the industry and safeguard our data from government overreach – ensuring that law enforcement access to this trove of information is fair, just, and only in accordance with the rule of law.”
EFF has published its “Who Has Your Back” report – an annual overview of the public policies and practices of major technology and communications companies in response to law enforcement requests – for six years.
While no company achieved credit in every category in the first report back in 2011, more than half of the companies got stars in four or five categories in 2015, and 23 of 24 followed industry best practices.
As the first set of companies we looked at has improved so substantially, we decided it was time to turn to the sharing economy.
“Shifts in industry momentum can take time. It took several years before we saw widespread adoption of the best practices promoted in our first ‘Who Has Your Back’ reports,” said EFF deputy executive director Kurt Opsahl.
“The users are the lifeblood of these companies, and next year’s report will provide them an opportunity to adopt best practices and stand up for the people who make their businesses work.”
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The report.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on May 9, 2016