Ubers Cutthroat Greyball Tool Is Ruthless

[Bladewire]

Brilliant and devious, but is it illegal?

"But unknown to Mr. England and other authorities, some of the digital cars they saw in the app did not represent actual vehicles. And the Uber drivers they were able to hail also quickly canceled. That was because Uber had tagged Mr. England and his colleagues ? essentially Greyballing them as city officials ? based on data collected from the app and in other ways. The company then served up a fake version of the app populated with ghost cars, to evade capture."

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https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/0...thorities.html

Uber has for years engaged in a worldwide program to deceive the authorities in markets where its low-cost ride-hailing service was being resisted by law enforcement or, in some instances, had been outright banned.

The program, involving a tool called Greyball, uses data collected from the Uber app and other techniques to identify and circumvent officials. Uber used these methods to evade the authorities in cities such as Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, and in countries like Australia, China, Italy and South Korea.

Greyball was part of a broader program called VTOS, short for ?violation of terms of service,? which Uber created to root out people it thought were using or targeting its service improperly. The VTOS program, including the Greyball tool, began as early as 2014 and remains in use, predominantly outside the United States. Greyball was approved by Uber?s legal team.

Greyball and the broader VTOS program were described to The New York Times by four current and former Uber employees, who also provided documents. The four spoke on the condition of anonymity because the tools and their use are confidential and because of fear of retaliation by the company.

Uber?s use of Greyball was recorded on video in late 2014, when Erich England, a code enforcement inspector in Portland, Ore., tried to hail an Uber car downtown as part of a sting operation against the company.

[JohnnyClips - BANNED FOR LIFE]

How can it be illegal? Uber is WAY better than cabs

[NALEM]

Originally Posted by Bladewire

Brilliant and devious, but is it illegal?

"But unknown to Mr. England and other authorities, some of the digital cars they saw in the app did not represent actual vehicles. And the Uber drivers they were able to hail also quickly canceled. That was because Uber had tagged Mr. England and his colleagues ? essentially Greyballing them as city officials ? based on data collected from the app and in other ways. The company then served up a fake version of the app populated with ghost cars, to evade capture."

----
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/0...thorities.html

Uber has for years engaged in a worldwide program to deceive the authorities in markets where its low-cost ride-hailing service was being resisted by law enforcement or, in some instances, had been outright banned.

The program, involving a tool called Greyball, uses data collected from the Uber app and other techniques to identify and circumvent officials. Uber used these methods to evade the authorities in cities such as Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, and in countries like Australia, China, Italy and South Korea.

Greyball was part of a broader program called VTOS, short for ?violation of terms of service,? which Uber created to root out people it thought were using or targeting its service improperly. The VTOS program, including the Greyball tool, began as early as 2014 and remains in use, predominantly outside the United States. Greyball was approved by Uber?s legal team.

Greyball and the broader VTOS program were described to The New York Times by four current and former Uber employees, who also provided documents. The four spoke on the condition of anonymity because the tools and their use are confidential and because of fear of retaliation by the company.

Uber?s use of Greyball was recorded on video in late 2014, when Erich England, a code enforcement inspector in Portland, Ore., tried to hail an Uber car downtown as part of a sting operation against the company.

Legal or not, that is for lawyers to debate. From my point of view, INGENIOUS, as I would of implemented the same!!! While the damage has been done, as far as the "current and former employee sources" I would conduct a 3rd party internal investigation, and hold the empoyees balls to the fire for releasing confidential information. We have a clause in our agreements that have very specific mutually agreed upon monetary damage award for various violations. Enforcement of the clause would force them right into bankruptcy court.