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Just to add to the charming profile of the paragons of virtue that is senior management at Uber[1]: "...In fact, the general manager of Uber NYC accessed the p

Just to add to the charming profile of the paragons of virtue that is senior management at Uber[1]: "...In fact, the general manager of Uber NYC accessed the profile of a BuzzFeed News reporter, Johana Bhuiyan, to make points in the course of a discussion of Uber policies. At no point in the email exchanges did she give him permission to do so." - So the CEO has publicly admitted to Calling it Boob-er [2] - Laughable disregard for Customer Privacy [1] - Thuggish/Predatory tactics towards Competitors [3] - Hit pieces & Misogynistic Statements about Journalists who cover them unfavorably Why are investors falling all over themselves to give this grab-bag of egomaniacal, frat-boy thugs more money? This is the real question for VCs and investors...is turning a profit the ONLY thing? then stop Bloviating about trying to change the world, about trying to attract more women into CS, etc. etc. Actions speak louder than words. [1] http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-digging-up-dirt-on-journalists http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-dig... [2]http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201403/uber-cab-confessions http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201403/uber-cab-c... [3]http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/26/6067663/this-is-ubers-playbook-for-sabotaging-lyft http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/26/6067663/this-is-ubers-play...

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
alexqgb 12y ago
It's not just the disregard for customer privacy that's at issue here. It's that the situation with Johana flatly contradicts Uber's subsequent remarks that they would never do...exactly what they did to Johana. Screwing people is bad. Screwing journalists is just stupid. Personally threatening other journalists is borderline insanity. Turning around and lying about the safety of the threatened journalist in a way that involves the abused journalist — who can demonstrate that the lie told to the threatened journalist is a lie — is over-the-moon idiocy. Buy hey, I'm sure these guys would never lie to their investors, right?
- aragot 12y ago
  Aside from the debate of whether he's a good exec, the argument about "lying" is perceived differently from country to country. In US, lying sounds like the worst thing eva. In France it's allowed to lie for your defense, even in front of the police or of the jury. Just yesterday I saw a movie where the kid was accused of shoplifting, said "I didn't do it", then the commercant frowns, the camera focuses, eyebrows darken and he says "!and you're a LIAR!?". From here it sounds quite ridiculous because we know people are failible and they sometimes commit little frauds, which wouldn't have been found otherwise and therefore should be dismissed. Especially so-said "lying" can often be turned over if you look at the context, the lack of precision, the tone and the informal situation. It doesn't mean the executive is a good person, he seems to have used misogynist comments, privacy tampering and threatened journalists in general. Just lying is not a demonstration by itself.
  - alexqgb 12y ago
    This maybe true of France, but we're not talking about France. We're talking about America. And in this country, lying to a judge (for instance) will likely get you thrown in jail on perjury charges. Also, the relative permissibility of lying has no bearing on whether or not others choose to trust you. The real question has to do with how these guys manage to maintain the trust of their investors when they're so reflexively dishonest with everyone else in their orbit.
jen_h 12y ago
The saddest thing is that you missed a couple: - Pushing drivers into subprime loans [4][5] - Enabling "god view" to allow party attendees to watch "important people" move around New York in real time [6][7] I wasn't tracking and didn't really know anything about this stuff (except for [3]) until last night. All I knew was that my little sis got gouged a lot with the price point changes and that when I tried to use it, I ran into so many basic issues with the app, including accepting payment methods (they managed to SMS and email ads to me immediately, though) that I resorted to the local taxi apps, which did the trick and I never went back. Now, I may check out Lyft. [4] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/06/3589715/uber-lending-investigation/ http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/06/3589715/uber-len... [5] http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady-partners-are-pushing-drivers-into-su-1649936785 http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady-partners-are-... [6]http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-uber-allegedly-stalked-users-for-party-goers-viewing-pleasure/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-... [7]https://medium.com/@petersimsie/can-we-trust-uber-c0e793deda36 https://medium.com/@petersimsie/can-we-trust-uber-c0e793deda...

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

alexqgb 12y ago

It's not just the disregard for customer privacy that's at issue here. It's that the situation with Johana flatly contradicts Uber's subsequent remarks that they would never do...exactly what they did to Johana. Screwing people is bad. Screwing journalists is just stupid. Personally threatening other journalists is borderline insanity. Turning around and lying about the safety of the threatened journalist in a way that involves the abused journalist — who can demonstrate that the lie told to the threatened journalist is a lie — is over-the-moon idiocy. Buy hey, I'm sure these guys would never lie to their investors, right?

aragot 12y ago
Aside from the debate of whether he's a good exec, the argument about "lying" is perceived differently from country to country. In US, lying sounds like the worst thing eva. In France it's allowed to lie for your defense, even in front of the police or of the jury. Just yesterday I saw a movie where the kid was accused of shoplifting, said "I didn't do it", then the commercant frowns, the camera focuses, eyebrows darken and he says "!and you're a LIAR!?". From here it sounds quite ridiculous because we know people are failible and they sometimes commit little frauds, which wouldn't have been found otherwise and therefore should be dismissed. Especially so-said "lying" can often be turned over if you look at the context, the lack of precision, the tone and the informal situation. It doesn't mean the executive is a good person, he seems to have used misogynist comments, privacy tampering and threatened journalists in general. Just lying is not a demonstration by itself.
- alexqgb 12y ago
  This maybe true of France, but we're not talking about France. We're talking about America. And in this country, lying to a judge (for instance) will likely get you thrown in jail on perjury charges. Also, the relative permissibility of lying has no bearing on whether or not others choose to trust you. The real question has to do with how these guys manage to maintain the trust of their investors when they're so reflexively dishonest with everyone else in their orbit.

jen_h 12y ago

The saddest thing is that you missed a couple: - Pushing drivers into subprime loans [4][5] - Enabling "god view" to allow party attendees to watch "important people" move around New York in real time [6][7] I wasn't tracking and didn't really know anything about this stuff (except for [3]) until last night. All I knew was that my little sis got gouged a lot with the price point changes and that when I tried to use it, I ran into so many basic issues with the app, including accepting payment methods (they managed to SMS and email ads to me immediately, though) that I resorted to the local taxi apps, which did the trick and I never went back. Now, I may check out Lyft. [4] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/06/3589715/uber-lending-investigation/ http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/06/3589715/uber-len... [5] http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady-partners-are-pushing-drivers-into-su-1649936785 http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady-partners-are-... [6]http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-uber-allegedly-stalked-users-for-party-goers-viewing-pleasure/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-... [7]https://medium.com/@petersimsie/can-we-trust-uber-c0e793deda36 https://medium.com/@petersimsie/can-we-trust-uber-c0e793deda...