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Uber CEO Plays with Fire

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#381

Post by BoiledCabbage »

gloverkcn wrote: post #374
hgdude wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tech has become a cesspool of slimy founders + and unbridled capitalism - this needs to stop for the greater good

In 20 years I haven't seen a time where this wasn't the case. Seed money is the first to take the risk and deserves the majority share of profit VC (series A,B,C) are putting in the most money and brining big hitters for the board and advisors. They clearly deserve the majority share. Founders do all the work and it's their idea so they deserve all the money. The second generation leaders productive, operationalize,…

It boils down to this: Capitalism is not the goal of society, it is a tool.

Somewhere in the past few decades we've conflated the two - and a larger portion of our population believe that Capitalism is the goal. It's not, it's a way to achieve our goals. It is efficient, it is effective, it will always have little to no morals and consolidate in the hands of the few. That is not a judgement of the system it is an assessment. No different than stating a hammer will will work well with nails and poorly with screws.

We as a world society (and particularly an American socienty) need to refocus on what our goals of society are. And actively decided when to use and when to rein in specific tools to achieve our goals.

Absent of focusing on goals, our tools become our goals and we get the results we're seeing today.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#382

Post by lamdsj »

odonnellryan wrote: post #119
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…

Taxi's have regulations and laws they have to follow. It isn't a perfect system, but you know there are certain precautions Taxi drivers are taking. You have a different kind of safety with Uber. There are always tradeoffs.

I've had a taxi driver literally fall asleep at every red light he stopped at while driving through town. Never had anything that dangerous with lyft or uber.

Also, I don't miss the days of walking an hour through the city on a Friday night because every passing cab was taken. I remember how bad things were before 2010

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#383

Post by partisan »

karlkatzke wrote: post #313
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I think this unroll.me thing is the real scandal here. I am an unroll.me user, but had no idea they sell user data to companies this way. Their whole value proposition is to help people control their own privacy and now I kind of feel betrayed..

I worked for a company that nearly acquired unroll.me. At the time, which was over three years ago, they had kept a copy of every single email of yours that you sent or received while a part of their service. Those emails were kept in a series of poorly secured S3 buckets. A large part of Slice buying unroll.me was for access to those email archives. Specifically, they wanted to look for keyword trends and for receip…

You might have been and possibly still are under an NDA from the acquisition process. I'm not sure it is worthwhile detailing all of this in a public forum.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#384

Post by shostack »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #361
Natsu wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms only of capabilities, that makes me wonder a lot about Gmail. I don't see anything there that they couldn't do if they wished to do it on a far grander scale. Granted, I tend to think the people who run Gmail are more honest than that, but if someday the wrong people retired and others took over or what have you, I wonder just how suddenly that could change?

Gmail doesn't need to sell data to anyone, they use it for rest of the google suites like google.com, adsense, youtube, doubleclick, and all the other properties they own. In fact it would be a stupid idea for them to sell any of that data directly to a 3rd party. Instead they package them in user friendly (marketer/advertiser friendly) ways to capitalize. Some of these are shady and I'm not a fan but overall I think…

> "Instead they package them in user friendly (marketer/advertiser friendly) ways to capitalize."

Yes, it is called Gmail Sponsored Promotions or "GSPs." Depending on the audience they can apparently be quite effective. [1]

[1] http://marketingland.com/gmail-sponsored-promotions-everythi...

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#385

Post by bluejekyll »

Iv wrote: post #355
Natsu wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms only of capabilities, that makes me wonder a lot about Gmail. I don't see anything there that they couldn't do if they wished to do it on a far grander scale. Granted, I tend to think the people who run Gmail are more honest than that, but if someday the wrong people retired and others took over or what have you, I wonder just how suddenly that could change?

Who knows? Maybe at one point people will realize the value of local mail storage and end to end cryptography.

Do you only use one device?

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#386

Post by uzoodoo »

Spivak wrote: post #335
uzoodoo wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be naive to give a service access to a trove of your private data and expect them to just leave it there...

Are we really at the point where people are being called naive for trusting a company to act ethically? It's no wonder people outside of tech hate us.

Companies only act ethically if it has a potential to affect their bottom line and they have the foresight.

It's not just tech, think pharmaceuticals or finance.

As for naivete - as the old saying goes, the only free cheese is in a mousetrap.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#387

Post by stagbeetle »

clample wrote: post #199
smokeyj wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we all expect journalistic integrity from Uber. Uber provides a service people need. Journalism is blogspam garbage.

You think that Uber is a service that people need? This sounds like exactly the kind of company that should be held to a high standard.

If we were to judge companies solely through a moral lense, sure.

But in the direct interest of capitalism, and indirectly consumers, it's terrible to restrict important businesses.

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#388

Post by areyousure »

vermontdevil wrote: post #332
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…

Speak for yourself. Many deaf and deaf/blind people absolutely detest the taxi industry. They treat us like shit. Over and over. I've been kicked out of cabs more than once when the driver learned I'm deaf and I would give them the address of my destination on paper. Got kicked out because I was signing with my friend in the back. Etc.

Pardon my ignorance of perhaps a common deaf experience, but why would a driver care whether you were deaf? (Naively, it seems like it'd be a benefit.)

Re: Uber CEO Plays with Fire

#389

Post by newsat13 »

karlkatzke wrote: post #313
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I think this unroll.me thing is the real scandal here. I am an unroll.me user, but had no idea they sell user data to companies this way. Their whole value proposition is to help people control their own privacy and now I kind of feel betrayed..

I worked for a company that nearly acquired unroll.me. At the time, which was over three years ago, they had kept a copy of every single email of yours that you sent or received while a part of their service. Those emails were kept in a series of poorly secured S3 buckets. A large part of Slice buying unroll.me was for access to those email archives. Specifically, they wanted to look for keyword trends and for receip…

Just so you know, you have been quotes on gruber's article. Be careful about what you say on careful forum especially since your profile gives your contact information.
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