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Indeed. Quoting the article: Hell originated after Uber created fake rider accounts on Lyft and used software to trick Lyft’s system into thinking those riders

Indeed. Quoting the article: Hell originated after Uber created fake rider accounts on Lyft and used software to trick Lyft’s system into thinking those riders were in certain locations. This allowed Uber to see the eight closest available Lyft drivers to each fake rider.

patrickg_zill 10y ago
If using the Android app, they could have easily run 1 or more copies in an emulator on a desktop system, setting GPS to whatever they wanted.
- thewhitetulip 10y ago
  even android developer settings allows us to mock locations, no need for an emulator!
dnautics 10y ago
This is a very "benign" fake, akin to scraping a website for information... Moreover, you could just as easily do it with a 'real' account; and just use the 'real' account far... Less often than you're using it to scrape the info.
- ckastner 10y ago
  This wasn't public information to be scraped, hence the requirement for an account. Creating fake accounts for this purpose is a violation of the current terms of service [1] (these might have been different in 2016): 9. Restricted Activities h. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any information transmitted through the Lyft Platform; l. use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device or process to retrieve, index, scrape, “data mine”, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Lyft Platform or its contents; [1] https://www.lyft.com/terms https://www.lyft.com/terms
  - andoon 10y ago
    Terms of service are not law. When an end user breaks the terms of service of whatever system, most people would say that terms of service mean nothing. But since it's Uber, uuuuh, the scary terms of service!!!
    - UncleMeat 10y ago
      With how the CFAA works, yes this sort of thing can absolutely be against the law. "Unauthorized" is a pretty broad term.
jessicaclark33 10y ago
That's just nasty!

patrickg_zill 10y ago

If using the Android app, they could have easily run 1 or more copies in an emulator on a desktop system, setting GPS to whatever they wanted.

thewhitetulip 10y ago
even android developer settings allows us to mock locations, no need for an emulator!

dnautics 10y ago

This is a very "benign" fake, akin to scraping a website for information... Moreover, you could just as easily do it with a 'real' account; and just use the 'real' account far... Less often than you're using it to scrape the info.

ckastner 10y ago
This wasn't public information to be scraped, hence the requirement for an account. Creating fake accounts for this purpose is a violation of the current terms of service [1] (these might have been different in 2016): 9. Restricted Activities h. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any information transmitted through the Lyft Platform; l. use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device or process to retrieve, index, scrape, “data mine”, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Lyft Platform or its contents; [1] https://www.lyft.com/terms https://www.lyft.com/terms
- andoon 10y ago
  Terms of service are not law. When an end user breaks the terms of service of whatever system, most people would say that terms of service mean nothing. But since it's Uber, uuuuh, the scary terms of service!!!
  - UncleMeat 10y ago
    With how the CFAA works, yes this sort of thing can absolutely be against the law. "Unauthorized" is a pretty broad term.

jessicaclark33 10y ago

That's just nasty!