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Uber CEO Plays with Fire

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#91

Post by zzalpha »

lisper wrote: post #56
zzalpha wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phone numbers can be trivially changed. In the article this is in the context of fraudsters buying used phones to fake rides in China and take advantage of incentive programs to make money. So they want to track these devices as they change hands.

Phones can change ownership too, so even if you can identify the phone it is dangerous to assume that you have identified a person.

Yup, no question. I'm not claiming Uber's approach is flawless, I'm just describing what I believe they were doing and why.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#92

Post by lutusp »

vitaminbandit wrote: post #23
lutusp wrote: post #16

Quote: "In a quest to build Uber into the world’s dominant ride-hailing entity, Mr. Kalanick has openly disregarded many rules and norms, backing down only when caught or cornered. He has flouted transportation and safety regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal loopholes and gray areas to gain a business advantage." This is classic malignant narcissism[1]. The irony of the story is…

Did you just diagnose someone with a condition that isn't found in the DSM and then cite your own website as a source of evidence?

> Did you just diagnose someone with a condition that isn't found in the DSM and then cite your own website as a source of evidence?

I knew Steve Jobs personally. He was a malignant narcissist as that term is defined[ * ]. Also, what pivotal role can scientific evidence play in an unscientific field like psychology?

> ... with a condition that isn't found in the DSM ...

Conditions arrive at, and depart from, the DSM regularly. Why would I pay particular attention to whether a condition is listed in the DSM? If psychology were a science, two things would differ from present practice:

1. Conditions would be included in/excluded from the DSM based on evidence rather than votes.

2. A condition's inclusion in the DSM would be less obviously based on popularity and more on evidence. Recent cases in point: homosexuality, Asperger Syndrome, recovered memory therapy.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_narcissism

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#93

Post by distances »

maxerickson wrote: post #24

It'd be nice if Apple had been less pragmatic and more principled and just yanked any version of the Uber app that broke the rules.

I tend to agree, companies with loads of technical and legal resources should be expected to follow the rules even more carefully.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#94

Post by [deleted] »

cmahler7 wrote: post #82
rhino369 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>regular taxi system as that's even more corrupt and despicable. The idea that the taxis are corrupt and despicable is 100% Uber/Lyft propaganda. The idea that a bunch of immigrants driving 12 hours a day to support a meager income for their families are a cabal of special interests is ridiculous. Uber and Lyft are better than taxis because of the on demand nature and they are cheaper because of better utilization. B…

they're cheaper because they can subsidize their fares via VC money

[deleted]

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#95

Post by [deleted] »

pfortuny wrote: post #48

As always with corporate "justice", if you are big enough and transgress, you simply get a slap. If you are a tiny developer, your app is out of the store and may be at some point you may get it back. Truly blind justice.

[deleted]

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#96

Post by [deleted] »

cmahler7 wrote: post #82
rhino369 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>regular taxi system as that's even more corrupt and despicable. The idea that the taxis are corrupt and despicable is 100% Uber/Lyft propaganda. The idea that a bunch of immigrants driving 12 hours a day to support a meager income for their families are a cabal of special interests is ridiculous. Uber and Lyft are better than taxis because of the on demand nature and they are cheaper because of better utilization. B…

they're cheaper because they can subsidize their fares via VC money

[deleted]

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#97

Post by ogezi »

cmahler7 wrote: post #82
rhino369 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>regular taxi system as that's even more corrupt and despicable. The idea that the taxis are corrupt and despicable is 100% Uber/Lyft propaganda. The idea that a bunch of immigrants driving 12 hours a day to support a meager income for their families are a cabal of special interests is ridiculous. Uber and Lyft are better than taxis because of the on demand nature and they are cheaper because of better utilization. B…

they're cheaper because they can subsidize their fares via VC money

> they're cheaper because they can subsidize their fares via VC money

That's not the (only) reason why they're cheaper.

They're cheaper because they offer drivers less downtime, therefore the drivers can end up earning more money since they're driving more of the time and earning fares.

They're also cheaper because services like uber pool and lyft line allow riders to spilt the fare among themselves.

I also think that Uber and Lyft will be cheaper than taxis for many more years to come. They're just more efficient as business models than taxis'.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#98

Post by jeffdavis »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #22
taude wrote: post #18

I really hope Lyft doesn't do anything to screw up, as I've uninstalled Uber and will probably never use the service again. However, I don't see myself going back to regular taxi system as that's even more corrupt and despicable. I just hope Lyft plays the game with a social conscious and makes positive decisions and continues to treat drivers well (most Lyft drivers I talk to say they like driving for Lyft way bette…

I don't think you can support a ridesharing company that by design treats employees as contractors and also be socially conscious . If you really want to do this use public transportation .

The only thing fundamental about Lyft is that you use an app to request a ride and Lyft helps route that to a nearby driver. That sounds like a completely reasonable business that serves a useful need.

Whether the drivers are employees, contractors, or volunteers is an implementation detail. If laws, public opinion, or economics change, the fundamental business still seems reasonable and useful.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#99

Post by _delirium »

pthreads wrote: post #83
h1fra wrote: post #2

No one seems to explain how Uber could track user when the have deleted the app ? It look more like an hack more than "a lack of boundaries" to me...

In this case, by tracking, it means the device's unique identity via fingerprinting. It does not mean location tracking or other similar information. So if multiple accounts are created on the same device (deleting the app in between) it would indicate that those accounts are fraudulent accounts. The issue with location tracking even when the Uber app is not running is a different issue. In my opinion Apple should ha…

If you add in the part where they "geofenced" Apple's headquarters, so the app behaved differently in that location than elsewhere in order to hide what it was doing, I'm not sure anyone else would even be merely suspended. Explicitly trying to hide your app behavior from App Store reviewers is such an overt sign that your app is doing something bad that it'll get anyone else's developer account banned from the app store entirely.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#100

Post by azinman2 »

Kallikrates wrote: post #72
azinman2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such key stores are wiped on erase. They more likely used the wifi MAC address.

Keychain used to persist data and are shared, this was a very recent change in iOS to "fix"

It can be backed up to iCloud but in the context of scammers they're likely not using the same iCloud over and over.
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