Stranger, meet WiFi

Stranger, meet WiFi

The not-so-sexy risks of having unprotected Airbnb networks

A solid Wifi connection is now considered essential by most guests looking for a short-term rental on Airbnb.  Most hosts, especially in cities, will find that their booking requests drop dramatically if internet is not included.  Still, that doesn’t mean that handing over your WiFi password to your guests, leaving your network unprotected, or having your router out on display are particularly good ideas. This is because as the host and connection provider, in most countries you are still legally responsible to make sure your guests don’t break rules using your connection.

Airbnb and Wifi: a torrent of legal issues waiting to happen?

The commonest type of legal snafu by far is copyright infringement.  While in 2018 most guests know that they could be breaking the law when streaming or downloading media and entertainment, if you don’t provide reminders and enforce limits you will still be hit with legal notices. A family with kids can easily eat up all your bandwidth on streaming and playing games, while those on a short business trip will often need to download files of a confidential nature.

Depending on the jurisdiction, legal enforcement typically starts small and escalates as more infringements are registered on your address.

  1. Warning messages and letters sent by your ISP
  2. Throttling of internet speeds and eventually, total discontinuation
  3. Cease and desist letters
  4. Legal fees and fines submitted by copyright holders

Airbnb Hosts face legal repercussions for guest WiFi misuse

Airbnb hosts sharing their negative experiences online are often surprised when they’re hit by a legal fine which could have been avoided, mentioning surprise fines imposed that run into the thousands.  

  • In a thread aAirbnb host in Germany speaks of being contacted by a lawyer working for an international movie studio and the harrowing experience of being sued for illegal use of the internet by a guest.
  • In another German case, Margherita “was forced to pay 1090 Euros to Warner Bros.”
  • Riem from Copenhagen also found it difficult to find information about how to handle a fine for illegal movie download by an Airbnb guest, after renting out a room.  
  • Mary, from Flagstaff, Arizon admits that she made a mistake when she “freely gave password information to guests to use” leading to her ISP issuing warnings of cutting her service after illegal copies of movies were downloaded by different Airbnb guests.

What to do about it

Even owners with basic computer skills can ensure their vacation rental WiFi remains safe and secure for guest use by following a few simple steps. These include:

  • Carrying out regular firmware updates;
  • Setting up a separate network for guests, encrypting both networks, and never using the guest network yourself;
  • Blocking peer to peer and torrent traffic;

At Rawstream we believe in protecting both guests and hosts with the least possible disruption to either. You can still continue to offer free WiFi but restrict access to peer to peer file sharing services by using Cloud DNS filtering  and by blocking p2p downloads, helping avoid hefty legal fees.

Get in touch with us at hello@rawstream.com!

 

 

Related posts

Content Filtering for Managed Chrome Devices and Browsers

Rawstream for Chrome is a CIPA compliant web filter for Chromebooks and managed Chrome browsers. Flexible policies allow you to block content by category, time of day, and time quota. Nearly unlimited Block and Allow lists are supported if you need to control access to specific...

Endpoint Agent: Heartbeat and Version Report

The Rawstream Web Filtering agent provides web security and filtering on end-point devices and runs on a variety of environments including Active Directory and Remote Desktop Services. You can use the User List report to find when an agent last called home, and to get the list of agents and...

Blocking Zoom

Blocking Zoom

Rawtream Network Security is a powerful DNS-based filter for network-wide security. The EU is just the latest in a long and growing list of institutions either advising against, or outright banning Zoom. Google and SpaceX have banned Zoom from their networks, as has Taiwan, US school...