5 ms·

Uber has strong internal data access controls at this point, and any user data access need a ticket and a justification before accessing.

cryptoz 9y ago
After nearly a decade of lying, cheating, intentionally breaking the laws of various countries, spying on paying cusomters, spying on other people, aggressively attacking and spying on journalists, of attempting to discredit victims of rape by Uber drivers, harassing their competition using illegal tactics and lying about it, etc, I don't care if they have "strong internal data access controls". They should have had that Day 1, they should never have lied or cheated and they certainly should not ever expect anyone to trust them about anything ever again. First, I doubt that it's true that they have strong controls. I don't trust organizations that have such a long, clear and bragging history of lying. Second, that sounds like the Titanic being unsinkable. As if I'm going to trust Uber with personal health data - they are the first group I'd suspect to try to sell that data under the table, the first group I'd expect to abuse the power, and also the first group I'd expect to suffer internal leaks or external hacks. No way I would trust this given the very recent and abhorrent behaviour of the executives at the company. Edit: Also this, > and any user data access need a ticket and a justification before accessing is not secure. Sounds to me like any user can make a ticket and create any justification they like. This is like the NSA saying "any user of our PRISM system is logged and watched" - but what happens when millions of tickets are going through? Is each one actually being carefully inspected for abuse? If Uber executives are in charge of this decision then no way do I trust it.
- asabjorn 9y ago
  It will definitely take time for Uber to earn trust back, and it is fair that you feel the way you do. Hopefully Uber will earn your and other people’s trust through us showing over time that we continue doing the right thing. My intention here is not to go into details, which would not be appropriate for me as an engineer that doesn’t work on those aspects. I am only saying we care a lot about this.
  - cryptoz 9y ago
    I'm not sure Uber ever had any trust to begin with. As far as I remember, they started off doing shady and illegal things while being rude, demeaning, unsafe, aggressive, etc. They'll never 'earn' any trust either, not from me, as they've done way too much damage without any semblance of humanity, even today. There are so many alternatives to Uber that are better, safer, and even cheaper that there will never be a need to use Uber and they will never get any trust. The people up-top there have been so thoroughly evil for so long and the damage they have done so great that I have no interest trusting them ever again. Edit: You downvoters have downvoted me so much I'm no longer allowed to reply or otherwise talk on HN. Goodbye.
    - lhorie 9y ago
      You clearly have some very visceral opinions about Uber and I'm sure nobody would be able to change your mind, but when the parent is saying that it'll take time for Uber to earn back trust, I think it is in the same sense as what happened to Microsoft. There was a time when there was a lot of animosity towards Microsoft, but over the years, younger people that had not been exposed to the drama grew up with a more neutral stance, and many many years of not-really-dramatic developments means that nowadays, people only really think of Microsoft as the company behind MS Office, XBox, etc and not so much about what its ethics framework looks like. Obviously you can still see people referring to it as M$ and similar and making fun on windows users, but it certainly isn't _common_ for average people to outright _hate_ Microsoft on ethical grounds.
      - 24gttghh 9y ago
        Wait, people trust Microsoft now?? I don't see their pushing of Windows 10 and it's phone-home features as being entirely ethical...
        lhorie 9y ago
        Oh come on. A five minute googling session will give you various articles talking about what telemetry was designed for and that the backlash was largely a storm in a cup of water based on ignorance and misunderstanding of the technology. Curiously, I've never heard anyone hate on Apple over telemetry.
- inverse_pi 9y ago
  What you probably don't know is that this is a problem with almost ALL tech companies in general. Early Facebook engineers can look up ANYONE's personal information. Same with Google. There was an article a couple weeks back about accusing Lyft employees of doing the same thing. This is the problem much bigger than one pre-ipo transportation company.
ProAm 9y ago
I would never trust Uber with something like this.

cryptoz 9y ago

After nearly a decade of lying, cheating, intentionally breaking the laws of various countries, spying on paying cusomters, spying on other people, aggressively attacking and spying on journalists, of attempting to discredit victims of rape by Uber drivers, harassing their competition using illegal tactics and lying about it, etc, I don't care if they have "strong internal data access controls". They should have had that Day 1, they should never have lied or cheated and they certainly should not ever expect anyone to trust them about anything ever again. First, I doubt that it's true that they have strong controls. I don't trust organizations that have such a long, clear and bragging history of lying. Second, that sounds like the Titanic being unsinkable. As if I'm going to trust Uber with personal health data - they are the first group I'd suspect to try to sell that data under the table, the first group I'd expect to abuse the power, and also the first group I'd expect to suffer internal leaks or external hacks. No way I would trust this given the very recent and abhorrent behaviour of the executives at the company. Edit: Also this, > and any user data access need a ticket and a justification before accessing is not secure. Sounds to me like any user can make a ticket and create any justification they like. This is like the NSA saying "any user of our PRISM system is logged and watched" - but what happens when millions of tickets are going through? Is each one actually being carefully inspected for abuse? If Uber executives are in charge of this decision then no way do I trust it.

asabjorn 9y ago
It will definitely take time for Uber to earn trust back, and it is fair that you feel the way you do. Hopefully Uber will earn your and other people’s trust through us showing over time that we continue doing the right thing. My intention here is not to go into details, which would not be appropriate for me as an engineer that doesn’t work on those aspects. I am only saying we care a lot about this.
- cryptoz 9y ago
  I'm not sure Uber ever had any trust to begin with. As far as I remember, they started off doing shady and illegal things while being rude, demeaning, unsafe, aggressive, etc. They'll never 'earn' any trust either, not from me, as they've done way too much damage without any semblance of humanity, even today. There are so many alternatives to Uber that are better, safer, and even cheaper that there will never be a need to use Uber and they will never get any trust. The people up-top there have been so thoroughly evil for so long and the damage they have done so great that I have no interest trusting them ever again. Edit: You downvoters have downvoted me so much I'm no longer allowed to reply or otherwise talk on HN. Goodbye.
  - lhorie 9y ago
    You clearly have some very visceral opinions about Uber and I'm sure nobody would be able to change your mind, but when the parent is saying that it'll take time for Uber to earn back trust, I think it is in the same sense as what happened to Microsoft. There was a time when there was a lot of animosity towards Microsoft, but over the years, younger people that had not been exposed to the drama grew up with a more neutral stance, and many many years of not-really-dramatic developments means that nowadays, people only really think of Microsoft as the company behind MS Office, XBox, etc and not so much about what its ethics framework looks like. Obviously you can still see people referring to it as M$ and similar and making fun on windows users, but it certainly isn't _common_ for average people to outright _hate_ Microsoft on ethical grounds.
    - 24gttghh 9y ago
      Wait, people trust Microsoft now?? I don't see their pushing of Windows 10 and it's phone-home features as being entirely ethical...
      - lhorie 9y ago
        Oh come on. A five minute googling session will give you various articles talking about what telemetry was designed for and that the backlash was largely a storm in a cup of water based on ignorance and misunderstanding of the technology. Curiously, I've never heard anyone hate on Apple over telemetry.
inverse_pi 9y ago
What you probably don't know is that this is a problem with almost ALL tech companies in general. Early Facebook engineers can look up ANYONE's personal information. Same with Google. There was an article a couple weeks back about accusing Lyft employees of doing the same thing. This is the problem much bigger than one pre-ipo transportation company.

ProAm 9y ago

I would never trust Uber with something like this.