New York City, as one of the world’s top tourist destinations, has been dealing with the turmoil caused by the hotel-like service Airbnb for many years. Recently, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a fiercely debated law to crack down on Airbnb, and the proponents popped the corks. But they may be celebrating too soon.
The evidence from city after city that has tried to regulate this company is that without the right data revealing Airbnb’s online transactions, it is virtually impossible to track its commercial activity or to enforce regulations. The battle over who controls data is emerging as a crucial one in the digital age, and unfortunately New York doesn’t seem to know that it lost this round.
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