Home sharing tied to identity theft

If you rent out your home or apartment through an online rental site such as Airbnb, you could be a greater risk of being a victim of identity theft.

That is the warning from the identity monitoring firm LifeLock, which conducted a survey of about 1,000 American adults and found that 41 percent said they have snooped through the private items of homes they have visited or rented. That rate is higher, 57 percent, among millennials, who are most likely to use rental sites such as Airbnb.

Identity theft and short-term rentals are phenomena that have grown in the Digital Age. But there is yet no data to show a direct link between the growth of identity theft and the surging popularity of short-term rentals.

Still, Paige Hanson, chief of identity education at LifeLock, said home sharing increases the risk of identity theft because it gives travelers access to private homes and personal data, a problem that doesn’t exist when travelers stay at hotels.

Airbnb, the largest home-sharing business, advises people who rent out homes through their website to lock up their personal papers and stop their mail when renters are in the homes.

But if an Airbnb host has his or her identity stolen, Airbnb spokesman Nick Shapiro said, the company will pay for the services of Allclear, an identity repair and protection firm.

United Airlines to use more thin seats

Hoping to match the profit margin of his competitors, United Airlines Chief Executive Oscar Munoz laid out a plan last week to generate $3.1 billion in new revenue and savings by 2018.

One way he hopes to meet that goal is to squeeze more thin-cushion seats into the economy section and offer more luxury seats near the front of the plane.

United has been replacing its traditional economy seats with so-called “slimline” seats that have thinner back cushions, making it easier to squeeze in more passengers per cabin. The entire airline will be retrofitted with the seats in 2018.

Another way to generate revenue, Munoz said, is to introduce new high-end fares with its Polaris international seat, which launches in December.

The roomy seat includes an extra storage area as well as the use of swanky Polaris lounges at United hubs across the country.

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Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times