Grayballing

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
At the time, Uber had just started its ride-hailing service in Portland without seeking permission from the city, which later declared the service illegal. To build a case against the company, officers like Mr. England posed as riders, opening the Uber app to hail a car and watching as miniature vehicles on the screen made their way toward the potential fares.

But unknown to Mr. England and other authorities, some of the digital cars they saw in the app did not represent actual vehicles. And the Uber drivers they were able to hail also quickly canceled. That was because Uber had tagged Mr. England and his colleagues — essentially Greyballing them as city officials — based on data collected from the app and in other ways. The company then served up a fake version of the app, populated with ghost cars, to evade capture.

At a time when Uber is already under scrutiny for its boundary-pushing workplace culture, its use of the Greyball tool underscores the lengths to which the company will go to dominate its market. Uber has long flouted laws and regulations to gain an edge against entrenched transportation providers, a modus operandi that has helped propel it into more than 70 countries and to a valuation close to $70 billion.

Yet using its app to identify and sidestep the authorities where regulators said Uber was breaking the law goes further toward skirting ethical lines — and, potentially, legal ones. Some at Uber who knew of the VTOS program and how the Greyball tool was being used were troubled by it.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html?_r=0


Genius ..... Greyballing
 

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
The whole cab company medallion thing is/was such a racket, even though this breaks the law I have to say bravo. I hope all those dirty cab companies die.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
The whole cab company medallion thing is/was such a racket, even though this breaks the law I have to say bravo. I hope all those dirty cab companies die.

Uber *is* a dirty cab company. Unregulated, illegal, and dangerous. No different than hitchhiking.

The problem with gypsy cabs is that it eventually becomes our (the taxpayers') problem when someone gets killed or raped. Then the unwashed want to sue the state because it didn't protect them from their stupid selves. If people had to suffer the consequences of their own poor choices, I'd say have at it. As it stands, they want freedom, then want a payday when that freedom injures or kills them.
 

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
Uber *is* a dirty cab company. Unregulated, illegal, and dangerous. No different than hitchhiking.

The problem with gypsy cabs is that it eventually becomes our (the taxpayers') problem when someone gets killed or raped. Then the unwashed want to sue the state because it didn't protect them from their stupid selves. If people had to suffer the consequences of their own poor choices, I'd say have at it. As it stands, they want freedom, then want a payday when that freedom injures or kills them.

By dirty I didn't mean actual dirt, I meant slimy etc.

I have never used Uber, but I have used a regular cab a few times and nothing about it felt clean or safe.
 
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