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Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

businessinsider.com

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Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#81

Post by logicallee »

hrehhf wrote: post #68
logicallee wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much my point is that this should take me 17.5 seconds, starting right now. 1) go to my online banking and sign in 2) pick a name and request a card for it. They should be legally forced to send me one. The point is I can use that for amazon dildo purchases, and no creep at amazon would get to see that I'm (whoever.) I get that this is possible: it needs to be simple.

But it is that simple. In my case, I got a card for a family member. But there is no verification done so you can literally get a card with any name on it. It is still tied to your identity through the bank.

But they may not like it when you have 73 active cards/names - so making this a mandatory thing would affect banks' processes. Also even if you're being literal and can do it in 17 seconds (i.e. after opening a new tab, 30 seconds from now you can have a card in the name of Mary Smith on its way to you) I and I think most people using online banking don't have it so smooth.

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#83

Post by username223 »

employee8000 wrote: post #46
droopyEyelids wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you're being serious or you're trying to damn them with faint praise by mentioning they changed their MOTD as a 'security measure' If you want to defend uber, it's pretty easy, just say there you know people that work on the team that audits the logs of employee access to personal data every quarter, and if those logs aren't justified by a ticket people get fired.

I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just telling the truth. I don't access customer information, and I don't know anyone who audits the logs so I can't comment on those. I also don't know what other processes are in place, I'm sure there are others, but I've just never had to deal with it so I don't know. But I trust that Uber takes the security of their customers information very very seriously. The image…

> The image of Uber being a brogrammers haven just isn't true anymore.

Maybe -- I don't work there or know anyone who does. But you have to admit that a company that would even think of creating something like "God Mode," then actually do so, then show it off, is seriously twisted and out of touch. AFAIK most of the higher-ups who were around then are still there now. You shouldn't be surprised if "I swear I've changed, baby" is met with a bit of skepticism.

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#84

Post by giovannibajo1 »

jc4p wrote: post #67
sidchilling wrote: post #48

I seriously don't understand why the updated Uber app asks to access my location all the time -- as opposed to only when I'm using the app. Not only is it not required but it's a huge drain on the phone's battery, potentially decreasing the battery's life. Now I'm from a third-world country and can't afford to buy a $1000 phone every year, so I have to be careful with the life of my phone. The turnaround this, I foun…

I'm with you on this. I don't get why Apple can't mandate a "Only when in app" option. The description for why they require it says they use the location while in app or for a few minutes after the trip is over. When I was getting ready to leave for work today, I got out of the shower and grabbed my phone and saw a alert saying Uber has been using my location in the background. I hadn't opened the app since last week…

That popup is standard for any app that is approved to potentially use location in background and you don't use often. I think it's meant to discourage apps to ask location in background altogether

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#85

Post by michaelvoz »

username223 wrote: post #79
michaelvoz wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber employee here too. Would never ever check any data of anyone not related to debugging crashes, race conditions, unexpected app behavior etc etc, its just not worth losing my job. Despite the bad press it is actually a pretty freaking great place to work. Also wanna +1 the warnings about data access and only looking at PII for legitimate purposes are all over the place.

> Despite the bad press it is actually a pretty freaking great place to work. So, how many hours a week do you drive? Oh, I'm sorry... those aren't "workers" -- they're just being nice and sharing their cars in their free time.

Actually I do drive. I drive so I can sympathize with the partners I am serving and better server them by making the product the rely on to make money better, and more reliable.

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#86

Post by res0nat0r »

kelnos wrote: post #77
employee8000 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just telling the truth. I don't access customer information, and I don't know anyone who audits the logs so I can't comment on those. I also don't know what other processes are in place, I'm sure there are others, but I've just never had to deal with it so I don't know. But I trust that Uber takes the security of their customers information very very seriously. The image…

The truth, at least the part of it that you can see for yourself. You freely admit that you don't know if there even are actually audit logs, or if the measures in place are simply big warnings (that have no teeth behind them). Even if there are audit logs, they're useless if there's no system in place that flags suspicious use for a human to check up on... or lacking that, someone whose job it is to regularly read t…

> You may trust that Uber takes the security of customer info seriously, but from the outside we have no frame of reference, except for reports of past wrong-doing. A statement to the effect of "it was bad in the past but it's better now" unfortunately isn't all that reassuring, and I hope you can see it from our side of the fence and understand why.

You are calling the OP out for not having hard evidence, yet you are happily accepting the words of other folks in news reports as being true. You can't really have it both ways...you're just picking the side you want to believe is true...

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#88

Post by KuhlMensch »

> Uber would not give more details on its technical controls. In practice, the security sources said, Uber’s policy basically relies on the honor system. Employees must agree not to abuse their access. But the company doesn’t actually prevent employees from getting and misusing the private information in the first place, the security sources said.

If true, that is fantastically ludicrous.

It seems I wasn't paying attention, in 2014 - as this "God view" news passed me by. I will be keeping a closer eye on this as it plays out.

Uber obviously seems to be in a strong position, but going only by this article, Uber might fare poorly in a multi-region privacy-legislation legal battle (war?).

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#89

Post by School-Cotton »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #29

Can we make the rule that it's not OK to post negative stories about YCombinator companies on this site? There are a million places to talk negative about everyhing. Here, we're trying to build things. We know no one is perfect. Lets make this place a bastion of positivity instead of negativity.

This forum isn't really about Y Combinator, despite sharing the domain name and parent organization.

> Here, we're trying to build things.

Actually, I'm not here to build anything. I'm here to have discussions about tech.

Re: Uber employees used the platform to stalk celebrities and their exes

#90

Post by ben_jones »

I wonder what it's like working for Uber and hearing this story. I imagine people form into two camps, with one doubling down their loyalty to the company (which could be properly placed for all we know), and another that becomes a little more suspicious walking into work next time.
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