No, other companies (of that size) are nothing like that. Yes, similar things obviously happen at other companies. The difference is that for Uber, it appears a

No, other companies (of that size) are nothing like that. Yes, similar things obviously happen at other companies. The difference is that for Uber, it appears as if breaking laws and/or ethical norms was the intended modus operandi. Contrary to popular opinion, companies can behave ethically, sometimes above and beyond what is required by law. I'd say the reasons are, in descending order of importance: - Companies are people, who have a strong sense of right and wrong, and are usually quite eager to stay on the right side of the line dividing the two. - "Company culture" which, just like a society's culture, actually sets the standards for what individuals consider right and wrong. This is what apparently broke down at Uber, because it's established quite early in an organisation's life. (I like to think that you can still see Steve Wozniak's playfulness in Apple's culture today, and that he may have stunted the worst of his co-founder's instincts from taking Apple down a similar path). - Evolution: It's impossible for any company of significant size to keep secrets. If Google, Apple etc. were doing stuff like this on the same scale, they would no longer exist. - The law, which is the codification of whatever society came up as in terms of morality - "Corporate Governance", which is the codification of the symbiosis of law and company culture, plus mechanisms to enforce it. But even if every company were as bad, I'd have to cite my Grandfather: "When did we start comparing ourselves to others?". Uber was up to a lot of stuff that shouldn't happen, and it shouldn't be excused. If you're asked to participate in such things, don't. If you fear you could be asked, or if you believe your company is forced to behave this way b/c competitors do, lobby for mechanisms to prevent it. Laws/Regulations/Industry guidelines on ethics fundamentally benefit everyone, because they prevent a Prisoner Dilemma's race to the bottom.