This whole air bnb story is blown out of proportions.
Yea, when you open up your house for people you don't know, it can happen that you will get it trashed (honestly I am surprised this is the first time that it happened).
Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
91–99 of 99 posts
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#92> "He made no inquiry into my current emotional state, my safety or my well being."
Airbnb definitely screwed up here, but she just sounds like a professional victim. Lots of homes get burglarized every day. On a smaller scale, everyone probably had a car broken into at least once. Yes, it feels bad. Very bad. But it's not THAT BAD. Not on a scale when you expect someone to inquire about your "emotional state, safety, or well-being" a month after it happened. Airbnb's handling of this case is a big failure, but it's not fair to blame them for someone being so damn sensitive.
Let's face it, she didn't do it out of sheer goodness of her heart. She did it for money. Letting strangers into your home does and always will involve some risk. If you're so vulnerable that you can't possibly take that risk - don't do it, period. It's simply not the right way for you to earn a quick buck.
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#93Roomorama doesn't scale. You could try to crowdsource some of the vetting responsibilities, or appoint community members to "check IDs", but then you get into uncomfortable privacy issues.
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have to be careful, though, as this kind of thing can be considered libel or slander if not 100% true, and collusion even if it is true. Having an industry-wide blacklist will almost definitely run afoul of the law.
This happens all the time in the Vegas casino industry. Heck, I think all casinos share a "perp" database with photos and everything. Illegal? Definitely not.
Doesn't this run counter to the referenced theory? A selfishly amoral casino would want card counters to bankrupt their competition, no?
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#95Any of Airbnb's competitors are going to use this to their advantage. Rightfully so too... I didn't even know about Roomorama until this story. The biggest part of the story though was thrown in at the end: The harrowing story of the Airbnb user EJ prompted Ms. En Teo to reach out to her competitors in order to set a precedent for sharing information about sketchy users, so if she gets a report about misbehavior she…
I call this the "problem of trust" and it is something I'm trying to solve. In order to be able to send out alerts, we need some sort of decentralized broadcast system. I am developing a P2P broadcast system called Proofnet which is based on proof-of-work to prioritize messages and minimize spam. I have describe it on the Bitcoin Forum here:
https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=31038.0
One of the applications of Proofnet is a decentralized web-of-trust where you can send out a scammer alert by giving someone a trust rating of 0 and broadcast that message with very high proof-of-work. See some more info on those efforts here:
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#96As others have alluded to, it's trivial to photoshop an ID with different info and photo. You could use a stolen credit card and a modified ID to make a reservation.
That said, I'm more concerned with "email a scanned photo ID". Are they seriously having users send scanned IDs through email? Email is completely insecure and should NEVER be used for sensitive information such as an ID. IDs should be treated in the same manner as credit cards. Would you ever ask a customer to email you scans of their credit card? You'd lose your merchant account faster than you can say law suit.
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#97Another sign that AirBnb could care less about its customers. When first AirBnb heard about this, they could've a.) Choose to protect her and other users from future incidents b.) Hide and hope it goes away If they choose a, 5 weeks ago, they would've already either changed the business process, or blogged about it to their community to warn them of danger (heck, the perp hasn't been caught/IDed yet). But because not…
Actually, someone has been arrested in connection with this case: http://allthingsd.com/20110729/airbnbs-rental-nightmare-ends...
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
the sites just have to remember to put that sign "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" and they are covered.
Put up that sign and then refuse service to blacks, and you're not fine. Put up that sign, implement the described policy, receive disproportionate numbers of complaints about blacks (because landlords are racist?), enforce the described policy equally irrespective of race, and you are walking a fine line. You could be sued for that and might not be fine.
the point of the comment i was first replying to was that 'it always worked for brick and mortar shops'
here in LA it's impossible to walk into a bar or restaurant and not see that sign.
but yes, i see your point too.
Re: Airbnb Competitor Checks IDs: 'We Don't Want to Trade Security for Volume'
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
This happens all the time in the Vegas casino industry. Heck, I think all casinos share a "perp" database with photos and everything. Illegal? Definitely not.
Doesn't this run counter to the referenced theory? A selfishly amoral casino would want card counters to bankrupt their competition, no?
Greedy, not just selfish. And it would harm them as well, since everyone would do it.
No, they profit much better by making sure Vegas is a thriving place with many casinos. If they DID manage to drive out all the other casinos, nobody would go to Vegas because it only had 1 casino!
Instead, it's much better to work together and share knowledge of the people who would rip them off.