The Sharing Economy: Sharing or Exposing?

Which of the following are examples of sharing economy?

• eBay

• Uber

• Airbnb

• All of the above

Which of the following are NOT advantages provided to consumers through using a sharing economy?

• Lower cost of services

• Higher autonomy

• Increased diversity of product choices

• None of the above

Sharing economy allows service providers higher autonomy because they enjoy more flexibility in:

• Working arrangements

• Choosing their employers

• Filtering unwanted customers

• Mode of operation

Hosts of Airbnb differ from sellers in a traditional market setting in that:

• Their services are offered with exemption from taxes.

• They only provide services to people within their target demographic.

• They do not have to inject startup capital or enter an entrepreneurship.

• As they are not considered commercial business, the government cannot enforce laws to regulate the hosts or their services.

Anonymity becomes a problem when:

• The identify of consumers cannot be identified.

• The credibility of service providers cannot be verified.

• It is leveraged with related tools to access personal information of others.

• All of the above.

Past incidents stemming from anonymity issues DO NOT include:

• Monetary frauds

• “Phantom rides” on Uber

• Unsatisfactory services provided

• Damage to property of Airbnb hosts

Another method that allows bike-sharing companies to gain extra revenue and poses privacy issues is

• Selling personal information of their users to third parties

• Investing in other retail modes such as selling bikes

• Offering other services to users based on big data analysis

• Analyze locational data of users for advertisement purposes

There was a security breach with Uber in 2016 where:

• Hackers stole personal information e.g. driver’s license

• Phishing happened to some users

• Users were scammed by Uber drivers

• None of the above.