Wow!!! I guess it's time to order in the super-sized bag of popcorn. This just keeps getting weirder and wilder by the day.
Hacks, bribes and bugs: Uber accused of illegal snooping on rivals
Uber has been accused of illegal intelligence gathering, using non-attributable hardware and software, impersonating drivers and bugging private events, in an explosive set of allegations from a former staffer. The revelations came in a document released as part of competitor Waymo's case against Uber, in which the Alphabet- …
COMMENTS
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Monday 18th December 2017 17:58 GMT Anonymous Coward
What bag?
This is getting into the realm of no longer funny.
I am surprised that the situation has not reached a point where RICO and other similar statute books are being thrown at them. IMHO it is only a matter of time for this to happen.
Frankly, it is high time Uber is closed down one way or another - we have yet another Uber driver to kill a passenger after trying to rape her as recently as last night: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/suspect-arrested-over-death-of-british-diplomat-rebecca-dykes-in-beirut
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Tuesday 19th December 2017 06:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: What bag?
> I am surprised that the situation has not reached a point where RICO and other similar statute books are being thrown at them. ...
Just to point out, the kinds of activities being alleged against Uber here are not really anything special. Many other ethically challenged large businesses operate similarly.
The difference is that most don't have the information become public.
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Tuesday 19th December 2017 12:42 GMT lglethal
Re: What bag?
"Just to point out, the kinds of activities being alleged against Uber here are not really anything special. Many other ethically challenged large businesses operate similarly.
The difference is that most don't have the information become public."
Lets just be clear here AC, I hope your not saying "Someone else is doing it, so it's ok for Über do have done it!"
If Über did These things, and they are illegal then they should absolutely get taken to the cleaners for it, and People (including Management) should get prison time. If you have Information that other firms are doing the same, then YOU should be talking to the Police.
Saying "shit happens" and giving a firm a free pass because other firms potentially might be doing the same thing is utter bollocks...
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Monday 18th December 2017 17:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
So much spying...
They must have all sorts of embarrassing 'stuff' on important people all over the world. They seem to be getting more like the old style Mafia every day. Perhaps in the not to distant future, the verb 'to Uber' means not getting an underpaid driver to posibly take you somewhere you don't want to go but where all your dirty laundry gets aired in public.
Or will someone sue them for so much money that they have to cease operations?
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Monday 18th December 2017 18:08 GMT Voland's right hand
Re: So much spying...
The only person in a better position to spy on you than your driver is the housemaid.
What people fail to understand is that Uber is not amorphous, anonymous like a taxi you hail in the middle of a street. All data on you has been collated by the company. That data is anything but amorphous and anonymous. They know where you live. Where you go. Where you take your kids. When you take your kids. When you pick them up. Minimal correlation also yields whom do you meet, when and where.
That would have been worrying In the hands of a fit and proper company.
Now think for a second about all that data being in the hands of a company with their track record, their governance and their management.
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Monday 18th December 2017 19:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: So much spying...
.....what, like Google?
I know nothing about Uber, I live in the back of beyond, but most of their practices seem like normal modern business.
...collecting data, knowing everything about you, knowing exactly how competitors operate, analysing the market place and targeting their efforts....sounds like many other companies to me.
As for illegal stuff preventing officialdom from knowing anything, pretty much on a par with operating off-shore accounts and having 35 holding companies to move profits in and out of countries to avoid tax...which all large companies seem to do.
Paying low wages...again so do most large companies.
Making their staff be "self employed" when really they are employees....so does the BBC.
I know they've upset a lot of people but isn't half of the complaints just sour grapes?
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Monday 18th December 2017 21:56 GMT Voland's right hand
Re: So much spying...
what, like Google?
Yes. Like Google. Or Apple for the Apple-centric households.
The issue with both is that while they are not angels, they have never tried to engage into outright criminal sh*t targeting specific individuals.
I am not aware of Google hiring PIs, hacking into people's systems to get their private data, getting illegally their medical information and violating laws and regs in every jurisdiction it operates. In all the years it has been the "eye in the sky" for a large chunk of human population there was just one case of an employee abusing site engineering access to target someone personally if memory serves me right. Apple has an even better record - afaik their record so far is practically spotless.
Now, shall we compare that with Uber?
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Wednesday 20th December 2017 09:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: So much spying...
Yes. Like Google. Or Apple for the Apple-centric households.
The issue with both is that while they are not angels, they have never tried to engage into outright criminal sh*t targeting specific individuals.
Google doesn't have to (they already know everything about you) and Apple could not care less on account of making enough money with hardware to bother about data and software other than a means to sell even more..
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Monday 18th December 2017 17:46 GMT Gotno iShit Wantno iShit
Kalanick
Surely the authorities have to go after Kalanick personally at some point? He ran this company, he set the way they operated. If he is allowed to walk away a precedent is set; Run a startup any way you like. Lie, cheat, steal, break laws, behave like utter shits. Do what the hell you like to get rich. It's all fine.
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Monday 18th December 2017 18:42 GMT ma1010
Like I said before...
Uber is a sinkhole of corruption with no bottom. There really seems to be no end to their crimes and crooked business practices.
Popcorn for all, as we wait for new crimes to be revealed next month!
My wife occasionally uses ride sharing, but I've got her using Lyft instead of Uber. Friends don't let friends use Uber.
Hopefully government will just kill this monster and bury it deep in a radioactive toxic waste dump where it belongs.
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Monday 18th December 2017 19:51 GMT John Smith 19
"Strategic Services Group (SSG)"
The "services" provided being to support the "strategy" of
a) Kill all competitors.
b) Destroy any legal obstacles to growing in any market anywhere.
The real model for these guys is the National Cash Register "Hit Squad" to (literally) destroy competition by undercutting their prices, selling poor quality counterfeits to destroy their reputation and steal their IP.
They were as successful in this as Microsoft has been in keeping any serious unified competitor off the desktop for the last 40 years.
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Tuesday 19th December 2017 03:08 GMT the Jim bloke
Re: "Strategic Services Group (SSG)"
Another atrocity to be laid at Ubers door...
Besmirching the good name of SSG.
Strategic Studies Group where, and possibly still are, an Australian computer game writing/publishing company, responsible for Battlefront, Europe Ablaze, Carriers at War, and I think Warlords and Reach for the Stars - before those thieving bastards at mcdonalds stole the name for a marketing/charity ploy.
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Tuesday 19th December 2017 06:07 GMT Justin Clift
Re: "Strategic Services Group (SSG)"
Wow. I'd forgotten about Reach for the Stars. Used to play it years ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_for_the_Stars_(video_game)
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