Privacy in the Sharing Economy

Abstract

This paper gives an in-depth overview of the topic of power in the sharing economy. It forms one part of a European Union Horizon 2020 Research Project on the sharing economy: "Ps2Share Participation, Privacy, and Power in the Sharing Economy". We aim to foster better awareness of the consequences which the sharing economy has on the way people behave, think, interact, and socialize across Europe. Our overarching objective is to identify key challenges of the sharing economy and improve Europe’s digital services through providing recommendations to Europe’s institutions. The initial stage of this research project involves a set of three literature reviews of the state of research on three core topics in relation to the sharing economy: participation (1), privacy (2), and power (3). This piece is a literature review on the topic of privacy. It addresses key privacy challenges for different stakeholders in the sharing economy. Throughout, we use the term "consumers" to refer to users on the receiving end (e.g., Airbnb guests, Uber passengers), "providers" to refer to users on the providing end (e.g., Airbnb hosts, Uber drivers) and "platforms" to refer to the mediating sites, apps and infrastructures matching consumers and providers (e.g., Airbnb, Uber).

Keywords: Sharing Economy, Privacy, Social Media, Self-Disclosure, Data Protection, Airbnb, Uber, Self-Presentation, Peer-to-Peer