The toolkit identified officials who may be seeking to stop the app and allowed drivers to avoid them.
Since this May, the rider app Uber has been subject of a criminal investigation regarding the use of a secret tool, that allowed the company to bypass local law and operate in markets without a license. You read that right - They deployed uber services in countries and cities that had not yet granted permission for the app.
The mysterious "Greyball" software successfully identified local government employees that could potentially restrict the app service and allowed drivers to avoid them. If a ride was hailed from a location that was close to an official government institution or a known government-tied IP address, their request could be easily ignored or cancelled.
Uber staff acknowledged, that they used this tool to evade government officials but have now "stopped using the software". What a relief!
After a number of legal challenges in various countries across the world, Uber is now being probed by the US Department of Justice. Various US cities have launched independent investigations into Uber's misconduct.
After the presence of the software was revealed, Uber defended it by implying that it has legitimate use cases like denying requests to fraudulent users. A rather weak defense, I might add.
In the first Quarter of the year the best-know security researcher of Uber resigned. No reason whatsoever was given. It certainly seems suspicious as he left just prior to the Greyball investigation. We are now several months into the process and their is no conclusion in sight, too many cases have pilled up on the endless list of allegations. It will be interesting to see the results and evaluate the extent of Uber's shady activities.
Even before this series of "unfortunate" events started, many countries around the world have banned the app completely or setup regulations that prevent it from operating there. Germany is the best example for this: In Germany you need to be certified to be able to work as a taxi driver - a meaningful regulation I would argue. After all you are entrusting the driver with your life.
Governments are bad. I get it. However, completely unregulated companies that are just profit-driven aren't ideal either.
Ideally, we need governments that actually care about human rights and enforce meaningful regulations that protect them. Like Net Neutrality. Otherwise, we get more companies like Uber, who have no regard for our privacy and data and are more than happy to use it against us. Uber's "clever" targeting of users based on phone IP and location, the subsequent exclusion of the targeted people from using their app, is not only a privacy breach, but also a perverted attempt at law evasion.
What happens if you are the person who is disliked by Uber? With the click of a button, you are suddenly the only person in town who can't ever hail a ride again. Imagine there is a new "Uber-Luxury Edition" and you suddenly can't use it, because the app has classified, that you aren't in the required income bracket to be considered a worthy passenger? Think about it.
The most important take away however, is that with every revelation of misconduct we find out that we don't know what the hell is actually hidden in the source code of most apps we use every day. And they sure as hell are not eager to tell us either.
That's why we need more Open Source software.
