New York Subpoenas Websites for User Data of People Who Have the Nerve to Rent out Their Own Property

From The Daily News:

The state's top cop is throwing the guest book at AirBnB — demanding host data from the 225,000 New Yorkers on the Web's biggest apartment sharing site.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed the data as part of an investigation into the website stemming from a 2010 law that makes it illegal to use such sites to rent out your own apartment. […]

The AG's office has requested the same user data from similar online services, and all have cooperated.

Those who value property rights as well as personal data privacy will enjoy this DeBlasiotastic passage:

Pols rallied against the sites four years ago after complaints of rowdy guests. Worse, some landlords were evicting tenants from rent-regulated apartments so they could offer the pads online — not only breaking the law, but robbing the city of housing.

These are the people the AG's office is looking to punish, the shady landlord or the traveling salesman who is gone half the year. The state is less concerned with casual users.

That's right—when you use the housing unit you own in the way you see fit, you are "robbing the city." Why anyone in New York would own any residence for any reason beyond living in it is beyond my comprehension.

Link via Brokelyn. Reason on AirBnB here, including Reason.tv's "Airbnb and Its Enemies: Who's Afraid of a $10-a-Night Sofa?"