Airbnb released details for the first time in its 8-year history this week about how the travel service responds to law enforcement requests for user data as the San Francisco-based start-up vows to begin being more transparent.
The report published by the company on Thursday contains the first public accounting yet of how Airbnb handles requests from authorities around the globe as millions of users each year use the service to book accommodations in 191 countries.
“We’re building a more transparent community and sharing data about our community with the general public,” Airbnb spokesperson Christopher Nulty told TechCrunch. “We felt that this is an important first step. In the future, we’ll look to share additional sorts of data about our community.”
Specifically, Airbnb acknowledges in its report having received 188 requests for users’ data during the first six months of this year from various governments. The company provided relevant data in respond to 82 of those requests, in turn handing over information pertaining to a total of 172 user accounts.
“We take trust pretty seriously on our platform and we think that’s reflected in our report,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch.
With Airbnb reporting around 31 million guests using its service in the first half of 2016, the 172 users affected represents a minuscule amount of the company’s user base.
France ranked first during that span with respect to the total number of requests made by authorities there, 42, followed by the United States in second place with 31 requests. In turn Airbnb provided data to investigators 22 and 21 times, respectively.
“Airbnb discloses user information in response to law enforcement requests if required to do so by law. Airbnb may also disclose user information if it has a good faith reason to believe that it is necessary to do so in order to protect the rights, property or safety of Airbnb, its users or members of the public. Our goal with this report is to provide additional insight into the number of requests that we receive, where they come from, and how often we provide information in response to them,” the company said.
The travel service has yet to receive any National Security Letters or similar orders that would require the company not to acknowledge its existence, it said.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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