I received an email today indicating AirBnb will now automatically opt-in user's photo and first name in order to fight discrimination via their "Project Lighthouse"<p>There is no public content about this change, but if you are logged in you can view this page and opt out:<p><a href="https://www.airbnb.com/account-settings/privacy-and-sharing/data-use" rel="nofollow">https://www.airbnb.com/account-settings/privacy-and-sharing/...</a><p><pre><code> Project Lighthouse
If you leave this setting turned on, you’re helping us identify and prevent discrimination from happening on Airbnb—and you’re taking part in an initiative to better understand how and where discrimination happens on platforms like ours.
If you turn this setting off, we won’t use your information, and we’ll remove it from future studies. You can change your mind at any time.
</code></pre>
The bit about being opted in was hidden towards the bottom of the email. Feels wrong.
Airbnb also uses your personal information for direct marketing. You can opt out by sending an email to: opt-out@airbnb.com<p>> Where permissible according to applicable law we may use certain limited personal information about you, such as your email address, to hash it and to share it with social media platforms, such as Facebook or Google, to generate leads, drive traffic to our websites or otherwise promote our products and services or the Airbnb Platform.<p>> Please note that you may, at any time ask Airbnb to cease processing your data for these direct marketing purposes by sending an e-mail to opt-out@airbnb.com.<p>> In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to require Airbnb and Airbnb Payments not to process your personal information for certain specific purposes (including profiling) where such processing is based on legitimate interest.<p>> Where your personal information is processed for direct marketing purposes, you may, at any time ask Airbnb to cease processing your data for these direct marketing purposes by sending an e-mail to opt-out@airbnb.com.<p><a href="https://www.airbnb.com/terms/privacy_policy" rel="nofollow">https://www.airbnb.com/terms/privacy_policy</a>
"So, to get these perceptions, we’ll share Airbnb profile photos and the first names associated with them with an independent partner that’s not part of Airbnb. "<p>I have to imagine they considered making this opt-in and realized the vast majority of users wouldn't take action to increase sharing of their personal data. Despite the good cause, it is incredibly shady that they would implement this as an opt-out.<p>IANAL, but I would think that this would be a flagrant violation of privacy laws in many regions outside the US (this policy is limited to US hosts and guests).<p>Edit: I also did not receive an email, but found the toggle active in my account preferences after reading this post.
Account deleted. Honestly given the pandemic (variations of cleaning standards between homes and hotels, and increased pricing) this was an easy choice.<p>From the email: "We know your privacy is important"<p>Airbnb should prove it by making this opt-in instead of opt-out (and not hiding the choice with a bunch of boilerplate). I expect these dark patterns from a shadier website, not Airbnb.<p>Edit: If you go through "Account settings" you are only given a choice to "deactivate" your account. To actually remove your information, go here: <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/privacy/manage-your-data" rel="nofollow">https://www.airbnb.com/privacy/manage-your-data</a>
Also, it launched and the email was sent on 30 June. Who knows whether opting out after that has any effect, because it's not clear on what "launch" is in this circumstance. They might have sent all the data over on the 30th.
The bit about it being opt-out was surprising but not in any way "hidden". It's literally the first thing in the email after the explanation of what Project Lighthouse is.
They don't need that data anyway.<p>I theorized about Airbnb inferring demographic information from Facebook likes in 2015 because it was trivially easy: <a href="https://caseysoftware.com/blog/social-apis-for-social-evil" rel="nofollow">https://caseysoftware.com/blog/social-apis-for-social-evil</a><p>It was confirmed they were doing it in 2018. If you used social login with them at all, they have all that info and they're <i>supposed</i> to delete it (according to Facebook's AUP) but effectively impossible to verify.
I'm torn.<p>What's better:<p>1) agree to their new terms and then opt-out<p>2) specifically disagree to the new terms but not be able to opt-out?<p>?
Is it normal for social media sharing to be on as well? I swear I didn't opt-in to this...<p><a href="https://i.imgur.com/6U8JiER.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/6U8JiER.jpg</a>
It took me some time to find it, so for people looking for it.
Here is the link to page you can delete your account from.<p><a href="https://www.airbnb.com/privacy/manage-your-data" rel="nofollow">https://www.airbnb.com/privacy/manage-your-data</a>
Why do hosts even get to reject people or see their picture or even name before making the decision? I don't see any legitimate use, only illegitimate use like denying based on race. Let hosts set a minimum stay length and such if they want but that should be it.
There's a lot more nuance to this:<p><a href="https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/a-new-way-were-fighting-discrimination-on-airbnb-201" rel="nofollow">https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/a-new-way-w...</a><p>I would also consider reading the white paper if you have some time:<p><a href="https://news.airbnb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/Project-Lighthouse-Airbnb-2020-06-12.pdf?_ga=2.103819651.2088554614.1593815824-1752601650.1593815824" rel="nofollow">https://news.airbnb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/P...</a><p>TLDR is that that information is stripped of Airbnb identifying information, asymmetrically encrypted before perceived race is determined, then noise is added when the data is returned to Airbnb to prevent identifying individuals. This data is only used for identifying acceptance rate disparity.
Your post is disingenuous. I got the same email and it very clearly lays out that you can opt out of the settings. This was not hidden in some obscure T&C. You can click the opt out link on the email directly and opt out.