How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#321

Post by BurningFrog » Thu, Jul 18, 2019, 2:37 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #289

BurningFrog wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are calling the current collection of laws and regulations "The Social Contract". You seem to refer to something else.

It's both, really. A part of the social contract is that, unless there are strong extenuating circumstances, everyone is expected to obey the law of the land. It's kind of like with sports. Both football and basketball are perfectly fine disciplines on their own, but the most fundamental rule of any game is that all players play by the same rulebook. You can't have a game if every player thinks they're playing a diff…

I'm reminded of when Bertrand Russel said that Hegel’s idea of freedom “means the right to obey the police and it means nothing else at all”.

Of course, you're not Hegel, and I'm definitely not Russel. So I'll just leave it at that :)

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#322

Post by learc83 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 12:48 AM UTC

danesparza wrote: post #320

learc83 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banning them only in bedrooms and bathrooms is insane. Common spaces aren't public spaces if you rent out the whole place. If you can't rent out your place without recording your renters, you dont need to be renting.

I completely agree with you. My point in including the link to the help article is to point out that AirBnB is on the side of disclosure -- so you as a consumer can make that choice for yourself. Somehow, I don't think many hotels would be that transparent.

You think hotels put cameras in your room?

AirBnB is on the side of disclosure for this specific problem, which isn't a problem in hotels unless someone is breaking the law.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#323

Post by CrazyStat » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 12:06 PM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #200

noxToken wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is one of the reasons I don't stay in airbnbs - the system breaks the social contract. But it doesn't. People are breaking the social contract by not respecting the area. If I invite friends from out of town over for the weekend, is that breaking the social contract? If I'm going away for 2 weeks, and I have friends house sit for the duration, is that breaking the social contract? Tourists and visitors existing…

> If I invite friends from out of town over for the weekend, is that breaking the social contract? That's different. You know your friends. You don't know your airbnb guests, and the reviews are only worth so much. I can't find the article now, but some porn company had an easy time gaming airbnb by getting good reviews in the beginning and using the place for shoots on the 10th stay or whatever. And, as a person who…

> I actually _was_ one of those people who enjoyed airbnbs for the reasons they publicize (the 'it's not a hotel' line, the 'feel at home with friends!' type of thing) -- but that seems to have largely disappeared.

Like many other things (search engine rankings come to mind), quality decreases as everybody figures out how to game the system to extract maximum profit for minimum effort. The rise of "superhosts" who manage dozens of properties from afar, using keypad locks to avoid any human interaction and contracting out cleaning to the lowest bidder, has undoubtedly been bad for the AirBnB experience. Yet AirBnB not only tolerates but actually celebrates them.