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How I got blacklisted by Uber

blog.will3942.com

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Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#31

Post by mcantelon »

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.

Maybe Uber should implement the necessary rate limiting.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#32

Post by kapilkale »

will3942 wrote: post #27
kapilkale wrote: post #24

What's to stop you from opening a new account using a different email and credit card?

I seem to get banned, unsure why.

This seems solvable because there are a limited set of identifiers they could use to ban you.

- they may have banned your device, so I'd try using a different hardware to register

- Use an entirely different credit card. The "name" that gets entered in a credit card form is useless, so I wouldn't put in a real name either. I'd consider using another billing address too (same zip same house number, but different street)

- they may have banned your IP, so don't connect your phone to a wifi network when signing up or using your first few cabs.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#33

Post by gilrain »

jdn wrote: post #23

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.

It was encouraged by the hackathon, since they won. It was punished by the business it inadvertently harmed. This seems like a reasonable outcome.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#34

Post by [deleted] »

will3942 wrote: post #29
throwaway1664 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#35

Post by tedivm »

mcantelon wrote: post #31
throwaway1664 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe Uber should implement the necessary rate limiting.

They did. Since it was a non public API he was abusing they just rate limited him to zero.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#36

Post by maxk42 »

sdoering wrote: post #17

Well that is quite interesting. A service that - as far as I can tell - just got itself started by hacking the local travel business, blacklists a dev, who just hacks his way to "expose" their API? Isn't Uber fighting hard to deregulate a market, after it entered it and turned it upside down - for better or worse? Wasn't the Uber-CEO the absolute Ayn Rand disciple? [1] [1] http://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-shrugged/…

He essentially DDOS'd Über. It's a practical matter rather than a philosophical one.

Re: How I got blacklisted by Uber

#38

Post by varelse »

sdoering wrote: post #17

Well that is quite interesting. A service that - as far as I can tell - just got itself started by hacking the local travel business, blacklists a dev, who just hacks his way to "expose" their API? Isn't Uber fighting hard to deregulate a market, after it entered it and turned it upside down - for better or worse? Wasn't the Uber-CEO the absolute Ayn Rand disciple? [1] [1] http://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-shrugged/…

It does seem the more rational response would be to rate-limit him (and by him I mean everyone) down to once every 30 seconds or so rather than panic and ban him forever. I once wrote a script to analyze queries of one of the major search engines. As long as I only sent a request every 2 seconds, it was not a problem. Once I crossed that threshold, within a minute, kaboom.

By the time I did that I had more than enough data for my nefarious (actually mostly innocuous) purposes at the time and just wanted to see when I'd get crushed.

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