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How I got blacklisted by Uber

blog.will3942.com

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Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#21

Post by will3942 »

katabatic wrote: post #15
will3942 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I created the hack to benefit others and to create and visualise some pretty cool data. I know why Uber banned me, they probably don't want people knowing how to access their data. This is not a reason I approve of but I can see their reasoning. The reason I'd like to apologise is because of the above, if they feel I have harmed their service (although I feel it was more beneficial to them in advertising it) then I'd…

You don't need to come up with reasons they banned you; you agreed to those reasons when you signed up for Uber -- you quite clearly and willingly violated their terms of service and encouraged others to do so as well. "You shall not [...] (iv) reverse engineer or access the Application in order to (a) design or build a competitive product or service, (b) design or build a product using similar ideas, features, funct…

I understand this and know why they banned me.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#22

Post by kyro »

Sorry, have to side with Uber. Hackers do not live in a bubble of innovation that renders them immune to being penalized for the potentially negative consequences of their hacks. Uber's priority is to serve their paying customers (like me) as best as possible, and if that requires banning someone who's being a nuisance, then so be it.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#23

Post by jdn »

A shame. I was at this hackathon and witnessed this pair working on the hack; very driven and talented hackers. This sort of activity should be encouraged from such young talent, not punished.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#25

Post by kec »

wolfgke wrote: post #8
Navarr wrote: post #3

I feel like it's a bit harsh to blacklist you without a takedown warning.

That's why I don't understand why Will Evans writes: " I'd love to apologize to Uber [...], but on the other hand I understand why they banned me." I see no reason why he should apologize, nor why he appreciatives that Uber banned him. He only wrote code to interprete the data Uber is sending and even made it open source (the latter makes it public accessible research, which I support even more). If Uber does not wan…

One man's research is another's DOS attack in this case, and is explicitly against Uber's TOS[0]: "You will not impair the proper operation of the network".

[0]: https://www.uber.com/legal

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#26

Post by throwaway1664 »

will3942 wrote: post #16
tedivm wrote: post #14

Lets be clear here- 600 requests every 1.2 seconds is 30,000 additional requests a minute. Uber is not Facebook or Twitter- the amount of requests per minute they get in a given city is probably in the hundreds, not the thousands. These were also not public API's- they were reverse engineered. That means that this puts real load on them, costs them real money in infrastructure costs, and was not done with anything ev…

I completely agree with this, I acknowledged this and realised I would probably get banned. It was more a case of letting people see how the Uber api could be used, that's why I've now replaced it with a video so people can continue to see it. I completely agree with why they banned me, it's a huge load to throw on the server. Although I'd love to be unbanned and use it again, I would be surprised if I was. Thanks fo…

You're still publishing the tool you used to 'attack' the Uber API, might want to take that down if you're serious about not causing Uber harm.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#28

Post by wolfgke »

katabatic wrote: post #15
will3942 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I created the hack to benefit others and to create and visualise some pretty cool data. I know why Uber banned me, they probably don't want people knowing how to access their data. This is not a reason I approve of but I can see their reasoning. The reason I'd like to apologise is because of the above, if they feel I have harmed their service (although I feel it was more beneficial to them in advertising it) then I'd…

You don't need to come up with reasons they banned you; you agreed to those reasons when you signed up for Uber -- you quite clearly and willingly violated their terms of service and encouraged others to do so as well. "You shall not [...] (iv) reverse engineer or access the Application in order to (a) design or build a competitive product or service, (b) design or build a product using similar ideas, features, funct…

He mights have violated Uber's terms of service. But on the other hand: I see no reason why you shouldn't despise a company that has such terms of services - even more if it's willing to apply these terms. Especially if it's a company that tries to be popular in hacker circles.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#29

Post by will3942 »

throwaway1664 wrote: post #26
will3942 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree with this, I acknowledged this and realised I would probably get banned. It was more a case of letting people see how the Uber api could be used, that's why I've now replaced it with a video so people can continue to see it. I completely agree with why they banned me, it's a huge load to throw on the server. Although I'd love to be unbanned and use it again, I would be surprised if I was. Thanks fo…

You're still publishing the tool you used to 'attack' the Uber API, might want to take that down if you're serious about not causing Uber harm.

I feel that I should keep it up just for reference and educational purposes. This was in no way an attack, but a mere hack that was created in 24 hours. It was not intended to be damaging to the service, although I do take responsibility that it was.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#30

Post by will3942 »

tedivm wrote: post #20
will3942 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree with this, I acknowledged this and realised I would probably get banned. It was more a case of letting people see how the Uber api could be used, that's why I've now replaced it with a video so people can continue to see it. I completely agree with why they banned me, it's a huge load to throw on the server. Although I'd love to be unbanned and use it again, I would be surprised if I was. Thanks fo…

Yeah, I figured you got it, and my comment was not directed at you. However, in the few minutes this post has been up there's a lot of blame going towards Uber, which is what I wanted to call out.

Yeah, no worries, I completely agree this is not Uber's fault at all. Their reasoning is more than valid.
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