Florida Man… pockets Uber cash to keep quiet about data breach A 20-year-old Florida man who lives with his mom was the "security researcher" that Uber paid off last year not to reveal a massive hack of its systems. In a typically Uber take on network security, the ride-hailing app company paid the man $100,000 in October last year to destroy data he downloaded on 57 million users, …
I'm afraid that argument is wearing a bit thin, having been used in the context of asbestos and cigarette manufacturing, coal mining, arms deals, ...
And in this case, we as consumers of hi-tech goods and services have been overpaying consistenly so that the providers of those goods and services could subsequently use the excess profits to subsidise the operation of a wholly dysfunctional and unsustainable taxi company that destroyed jobs at sustainable and established taxi companies.
It's a struggle to see a moral imperative in there...
In my eyes the onus is on them to them to prove they've changed not on me to assume that the new guy is telling the truth "this time".
I reckon if they can go 12-18 months without any new scandals (including covering up old scandals) or "WTF have they done now" reporting then we can start saying that they've turned over a new leaf
But fair play to Khosrowshahi for coming clean.
Hardly. He was brought in specifically to clean out the Augean Stables that are Uber's headquarters, and he will be on a typical US tech CEO megabuck contract. If he doesn't make demonstrable progress the investors who allowed his appointment would have him fired.
What concerns me is that there seem to be no limits to the rankness of Uber, and potentially all we're seeing is the easy to fix stuff, and the things a lot of people already know are wrong. Whilst firing the guilty is desirable, it guarantees nobody guilty will step forward of their own accord. If individuals or small cabals are associated with particular malfeasance, and nobody outside knows, then the dirt remains. Imagine a scenario where a large part of Uber's code actually belonged to somebody else - if that was known only in the heads of a senior manager and a couple of coders, they won't admit now, and the problem just sits there like a UXB. Doesn't even have to be an IP or tech issue - imagine the wrongs that Uber's HR people have connived to, or hushed up, or the sticky dirt the finance people have on their hands.
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