Air BnB requesting personal government documents for Id- breach of privacy?

[Rob10920]

Hi having been part of AirBnB for 11 Years and operating multiple TCA accredited tourism businesses I was taken back when requested to provide additional Id in the form of a copy of my Australian Passport or drivers Licence!

I take the security of my personal information seriously and under no circumstances do I upload the same to the internet or extranet.

Sadly,  a phone call received from Air BnB representative didn’t accept this and shut down our online advertising for our properties along with the extranet so we are now unable to manage either inventory or guest bookings.

We are now being “blackmailed” by AirBnB to provide this Id as with out it they have advised that they will not pay us for guests that have stayed!

We are holding many bookings totally around $10,000 from Air BnB and now we are in a predicament whereby if we honour these bookings AirBnB will not pay us!

From a business perspective we cannot accept guest reservations knowing that AirBnB will not pay for their stay!

So do we cancel these bookings or charge the guests for the same and ask them to claim their prepayment back from AirBnB?
We certainly don’t want to inconvenience guests or spoil their holiday however Air BnBare being so difficult to engage and deal with it leaves little option but to cancel these bookings?

Have any other operators experienced the same “AirBnB way or the highway” approach that we have? 
Formal complaints have also been lodged with the ACCC as well as Consumer Affairs and the OAIC.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Rob10920 Airbnb need to comply with anti money laundering and anti terrorism legislation. As such they need to know who you are. If you are not willing to comply then they will, rightly, shut you down.

[Helen3]

If you're not willing to do what millions of other hosts do and upload your ID to demonstrate who you are then I'm afraid you won't be able to operate your STR business on Airbnb.

providing ID is a pretty standard requirement for businesses and business owners 

I needed to do it when setting up a bank account, taking out a mortgage etc . Do you not have that in your country @Rob10920 

you are not being blackmailed - you are simply being asked for ID as Mike says to comply with money laundering/terrorism  regs.

if you choose to inconvenience your guests by cancelling their bookings because you won't provide ID - that's very much down to you . 

[Tim2472]

Rob has every right to be concerned.  Showing ID for verification purposes is not a problem, retaining electronic copies on their servers post verification is a massive concern and unnecessary.  

Your analogy with a bank is wrong.  Banks do not retain electronic copies of your Gov Id documents.  

Airbnb therefore have pretty much all of your personal data and business data in their hands - are you happy to give your financial life to a Californian tech company?

With this much information Airbnb will also become an obvious target for hackers.

Airbnb have been reprimanded in several countries for breach of respective privacy laws.

[Helen744]

@Rob10920 the answer is very simple Rob . Give them your government Id for goodness sake..If you want them to host your platform and give you money ? Are you serious or is this a joke ?.. H

[Tim2472]

Helen, this is not a joke - this is a very serious breach of the Privacy Act.  It is not ok to retain gov IDs on their servers.  There is no such thing as a perfectly secure network.  Despite Airbnb's claims about encryption and data security, they are still vulnerable, especially as they hold so much data on so many people.  If they merely want to check your ID, then once they have done so there is no reason to retain electronic copies.  

In light of so many data breaches in recent months, I am surprised everyone is so willing to give Airbnb essentially the keys to their lives.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tim2472 I have regularly left my passport and other ID with various embassies and companies (usually hotels)  around the world. At least one of those embassies was for a particularly dodgy country (although everyone I met there was lovely). As such I think in today's world we just have to accept that identity and other fraud is possible and just deal with it in the unlikely event it happens.

[Helen3]

Are you seriously saying that you have never had to provide your ID when buying a house,  opening a bank account etc. @Tim2472 

I don't use other STR platforms but if you don't want to provide photo ID to Airbnb look at using other STR platforms which don't require ID and/or set up your STR business so you can take direct bookings.

Airbnb don't hold your ID it is held by a secure third party.

[Tim2472]

Helen, Airbnb do hold/retain an electronic copy of your ID - it is not  held by a secure third party.  And what does 'secure' mean?

Have you not heard about all the data breaches of large companies in recent years? There is not such thing as a perfect system.

I have done a lot of research on this (I am a systems engineer), and airbnb's architecture is ok, but it is/will become a target.

Once verification has been  performed there is no reason to retain a copy. Further,  this contravenes most privacy laws in most countries.  Ireland have reprimanded Airbnb for this, and I suspect more will follow. Here is the key finding:

"The DPC found that Airbnb’s retention of a copy of the complainant’s identity documentation following the successful completion of the identity verification process infringed the principles of data minimisation in Article 5 (1)(c) and the principle of storage limitation in Article 5(1)(e). Furthermore, the DPC found that the continued processing and retention of partially redacted and out-of-date identity documents that had been deemed inadequate or insufficient to verify the identity of the complainant infringed the principle of data minimisation that is set out in Article 5(1)(c) and the principle of storage limitation that is set out in Article 5(1)(e)." Ref: https://edpb.europa.eu/news/national-news/2023/irish-sa-adopts-decision-concerning-airbnb-ireland_en

[Helen3]

Hello @Tim2472 

If you look on the Airbnb Help website it should give you information on Airbnb's third party verification system . 

[Tim2472]

Story not substantiated, but it looks as if your and my concerns (see my replies to the two Helens), might have now  just happened:

https://thecyberexpress.com/airbnb-data-breach-millions-records-on-sale/

Airbnb have yet to respond.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Tim2472 , 

We understand that It's important to address concerns like these and want to clarify that the information mentioned in the article is inaccurate and the alleged data breach did not occur.