Safe pedaling for all
Council bill may be a diner’s data disaster
COURIER L 20 IFE, JULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021
EDITORIAL
OP-ED
New Yorkers are riding
bicycles at a high rate,
according to the Department
of Transportation. Cycling
surged during the pandemic,
and as the city reopens,
the trend doesn’t seem to be
slowing down.
The expansion of Citi Bikes
across the City has made cycling
a much more attractive
option for residents. The City
needs to implement more protected
bike lanes in an effort to
protect cyclists. Often, there
are streets where cyclists are
forced to ride in the midst of
traffi c, which puts them at
risk of getting hurt.
There’s a contingent of
drivers who blame the bicyclists
themselves for breaking
the law on the road. We get the
frustration, but at the same
time, not all drivers are angels
on the roads themselves — and
getting hit by a driver operating
a speeding, 2,000-pound vehicle
is far more serious than
getting struck by a 200-pound
person pedaling a bicycle that
weighs 40 pounds or less.
Bicyclists, therefore, need
more areas to safely pedal, and
the City plans to add 30 miles
of protected bike lanes by the
end of the year. The increase
in cycling has, however, led to
more accidents, as there just
aren’t enough protected lanes
in place yet.
E-bikes have been an issue
in particular. Citi Bike has increased
its fl eet of e-bikes and
so have deaths in the City involving
e-bikes. In 2019, there
were only 6 deaths involving
e-bikes. That number jumped
to 20 in 2020.
On the fl ip side, bicyclists,
e-bikes and e-scooters need to
be better regulated so that users
of these modes of transportation
understand that they
also need to follow the rules of
the road.
Brooklyn State Senator
Simcha Felder proposes a new
state law that would mandate
that riders of bicycles, e-scooters
or e-bikes wear helmets. It
also creates a system where
bicyclists are required to get
licenses to operate a bicycle,
register their devices and purchase
liability insurance.
These are good ideas, but
the state must be made careful
not to add fi nancial burdens
for bicyclists — a number of
whom are low-wage delivery
workers, or otherwise cannot
afford the expenses of car
ownership or even a monthly
MetroCard.
A lot has been done over the
past several years to make the
City more bike-friendly, but
there is still plenty more to do
to make it safe for everyone.
BY JONATHAN ASKIN
New Yorkers love our neighborhood
restaurants. When
COVID scared us into staying
home and avoiding crowds, it
was great that so many restaurants
embraced home delivery.
Millions of New Yorkers
downloaded apps that simplifi
ed our lives and helped our
restaurants: DoorDash, Grub-
Hub, Seamless, Caviar, Uber
Eats, and the list goes on.
These apps are not perfect as
the fees can be high and restaurant
choices limited. Still,
they were a lifesaver for many
restaurants and made the pandemic
much easier for consumers.
It may be obvious that chefs
are not experts at building
websites, managing delivery
staff, and handling consumer
data, and that app companies
don’t cook great meals. But
by working together, the delivery
apps free restaurants
from the mundane yet important
tasks of remote business
so they can focus on our food.
It’s a partnership that works
well for the businesses and
consumers, which makes it
perplexing that the New York
City Council wants to change
these relationships. Other cities
have capped delivery fees
10 or 15 percent, but only New
York City is considering forcing
apps to share customers’
personal data with restaurants.
This could be a recipe
for a data disaster.
The City Council is undoubtedly
trying to do right
by New York City restaurants.
Every restaurant would like to
ask customers directly about
the delivery experience and
the food, make sure the customer
is happy, and perhaps
send discount offers or other
promotions. But forcing companies
to share customers’
personal information with
others violates every privacy
and data protection guideline
that’s ever been written, including
laws passed in Europe
and several U.S. states.
The fi rst rule of data privacy
is to respect personally
identifi able information.
“PII” shared with the wrong
person can quickly lead to
scam emails, phone calls,
identity theft, stalking, or
worse. That’s why sophisticated
companies tell consumers
precisely what will be done
with their information and
why they don’t share sensitive
data with anyone – including
with business partners.
No website should ever give
your data away without your
permission, and no legislature
should require that your data
gets transferred without your
explicit approval.
Ten years ago, millions of
Target department store customers
learned that cybercriminals
hacked their personal
and fi nancial data. Most
people never learned that this
happened because one untrained
contractor working at
one store was needlessly connected
to Target’s national consumer
database – and that contractor
got hacked. The lessons
of that data breach have been
learned and put into practice
by DoorDash, Uber Eats and
every respectable food delivery
app. But very few restaurants –
and likely none of our favorite
small restaurants – are professionally
trained how to manage
and protect consumer data.
I prefer to order food directly
from restaurants, but if
you prefer to order through an
app then your personal data
should be respected by the app
– and by the City Council. Mobile
app companies spend millions
of dollars on sophisticated
data security. Their privacy experts
are educated about how
to protect our data. Local restaurants
typically don’t have
privacy experts or invest in
data security. And when a law
requires a company to share
data with others, there is no
incentive for the data recipient
to guarantee that the data is secure
or employees are properly
trained.
If the City Council wants
to help restaurants get direct
access to delivery app customers,
there are options that will
not put consumers at risk or offend
their data privacy rights.
Consumers can be empowered
to choose, and restaurants can
be required to ensure that data
is protected. All New Yorkers
deserve the right to choose
and control who gets their data.
These choices should not be
made for us by the City Council
or by our favorite local restaurants.
Jonathan Askin is Professor
of Clinical Law at Brooklyn
Law School and Director
of the Brooklyn Law Incubator
and Policy Clinic.
Patrons dine outdoors. Photo by Caroline Ourso