The ride-hailing app Uber, which is founded in San Francisco, has made headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent years. Uber’s usage of Greyball technology, which has been around for at least a few years, compounds the problems. In an unexpected turn of events, Uber has officially announced that they would no longer be using the Greyball technology. Therefore, if you’re not sure what Greyballing is and want to know more about what Greyball technology can achieve, you’ve come to the right place. With the help of our Uber’s Greyball technology explanation, you’ll be better able to comprehend what it is, why it is used, and whether it is lawful. So let’s get going.
What is Uber s Greyball Technology?
Greyball is, in the simplest words, a covert internal technology used by Uber to refuse rides to specific customers in its vehicles. These specific users are presented with a false map of the Uber vehicles nearby. Uber would purposefully cancel their cab reservation if they were to manage it. Since 2014, it has been used in cities like Paris and Las Vegas as well as nations like Australia, South Korea, and China.
If you feel like you already have a lot of questions, such as who these specific users are and how they even maintain track of those folks, I wouldn’t be shocked. Continue reading, and you may relax knowing that I have you covered. Let’s find out more about these users and the reasoning behind the implementation of this technology.
The Motive Behind Greyballing
Let’s get this out of the way right away: Greyball is utilised for two separate reasons. First, let’s consider Uber’s viewpoint. Uber’s official comment is as follows:
This programme rejects trip requests from users who are abusing our terms of service, including those who want to hurt drivers physically, rivals who want to interfere with our business, and competitors who work with law enforcement to conduct undercover sting operations to catch drivers.
Yes, it makes sense. After all, incidents of other taxi company employees attacking Uber drivers are not uncommon. Additionally, although disputes between Uber and the local government are uncommon, they are not unheard of either. In light of this, why is there such a legal uproar about this technology if Uber had implemented it for the benefit and safety of its drivers?
Unfortunately, what had started off as a good deed was now being exploited very unethically. Since most of them have extremely severe restrictions around taxi firms, many nations do not view Uber, or most other cab services for that matter, as entirely lawful. We won’t go into great detail on the legal and regulatory requirements, but this is what Uber did: it used the Greyball technology to elude the law and operate in areas where it did not yet have a licence.
If you’re wondering who those users are, they are government officials, regulators, or anyone else who might give Uber legal issues. They would be given a phoney map of Uber cabs nearby and eventually have their request cancelled when law enforcement personnel dressed as regular travellers attempted to book an Uber to write a ticket or cause any other legal trouble. Uber therefore employed the Greyball in an astute manner to avoid such individuals.
We’ll go through how Uber located these law enforcement officials in the following part, as well as how the Greyball technology truly functions.
How Greyball Technique Works
According to a NYTimes story, geofencing is the most effective method for locating these individuals. Under this method, Uber would carefully monitor the area around Government buildings on a map and then keep note of the number of individuals in this region who frequently used the Uber app. Such behaviour frequently suggests that one may be tracking an Uber’s whereabouts on a map in an unusual way, and there is a good likelihood that they are from a legal agency.
As the most of you are aware, the first six digits of a credit card number are referred to as a bank identification number and can be used to locate the bank that issued the card. In order to determine whether the user’s saved credit card information is connected to any legal authorities, Uber apparently used this resource. This allowed it to identify a specific user as a representative of the government or another legal authority.
In order to trace them, law enforcement organisations typically purchase new, inexpensive phones. You may have a hard time processing this, but if rumours are to be believed, Uber even sent personnel to local electronic markets to learn about the sale of such phones, allowing them to efficiently identify individuals who possess such phones as being from the legal system.
But hold on, there’s more. According to reports, Uber personnel verified consumers’ identities by looking them up on social media networks. To be completely honest, I have no idea how they were able to make it work on such a massive scale. Over a dozen of these techniques are thought to have been utilised by Uber to determine if a user is a regular user or a member of the law enforcement community.
Is the Greyball Technology Legal?
Uber’s usage of Greyball is now without a shadow of a doubt wholly immoral. However, there is still one unresolved issue. Does this render Greyball unlawful?
Unexpectedly, as of right now, there hasn’t been any significant outsider legal action against Uber, according to reports that Greyball was allowed by Uber’s legal department. According to Peter Henning, a legal expert, depending on local laws and jurisdictions, it may be a violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or even willful obstructing of justice. Although no formal legal action has been taken against Uber to date, everyone is naturally eager to monitor any future developments.
Uber Promises to Stop Using Greyball
Uber has pledged that it will stop utilising the Greyball strategy, which it has been using for at least a few years to get around local regulators. Due to the way their systems are set up, Uber stated in an official blog post that it will take some time to guarantee this prohibition is strictly implemented. Additionally, they noted that other organisations have contacted them seeking more information regarding Greyball, and they would be replying to them once their assessment is complete.
It appears that this year hasn’t been as successful for Uber as they had hoped. The CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, apologised profusely after a video of him yelling at an Uber driver went viral earlier this year. A female ex-employee of Uber recently made reports about a sexist and unpleasant work environment. Oh, and the #DeleteUbercampaign, in which approximately 200,000 people cancelled their Uber accounts.
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What Do You Think of Uber s Greyball Technology?
The last few years have seen a steady erosion in Uber’s reputation. By removing the Greyball technique, it appears to have switched to damage control mode. It will take some time to determine whether Uber’s adoption of the Greyball approach will result in legal action. Uber has undoubtedly made a positive move, and I sincerely hope that they continue to make wise choices. If you have any unresolved questions concerning Greyball in the interim, please post them as soon as possible in the comments area below.
