<story><title>How Uber Used Secret “Greyball” Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html?_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lacampbell</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like the US government much, but I like it a lot better than the average multinational. When it comes down to it, we don&amp;#x27;t have more than our choice of devils.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I don&amp;#x27;t like Uber, I can... stop using Uber. What can I do if I don&amp;#x27;t like the service a state provides - can I opt out and stop paying? No, my only option is to flee - which the state will often try and prevent you doing anyway.&lt;p&gt;The state is a huge corporation, that will use force to change you for its services, whether they are good or not, or whether you use them or not. Your only option to avoid this involuntary charge s to flee - and the state reserves the right to employ violence to stop you doing even that.&lt;p&gt;It seems pretty clear to me which is more immoral.</text></item><item><author>maldusiecle</author><text>My perspective is the opposite. In a world where large multinationals have the power to evade the law in a deliberate and systematic way like this, it&amp;#x27;s easy for governments to claim they need the same kind of power. Things like this are exactly what bureaucrats point to when they make their arguments for a surveillance state.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like the US government much, but I like it a lot better than the average multinational. When it comes down to it, we don&amp;#x27;t have more than our choice of devils.</text></item><item><author>HorizonXP</author><text>How diabolical!&lt;p&gt;In a world where privacy has been traded away for convenience, it&amp;#x27;s poetic justice where a startup uses data mining techniques to subvert the government. This is the same government that would have no issues to use the same techniques to spy on its own people for its own motives.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m neither on Uber nor the government&amp;#x27;s side in this case, just simply making an observation. The lack of data privacy seems to be a double-edged sword for users and government&amp;#x2F;law enforcement alike.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nemacol</author><text>You can vote, run for office, petition, volunteer, protest,etc  to the local, state, and federal government to have policies that reflect your values.   The only thing you can do with Uber is use it or not.  Maybe you could write Uber a letter.&lt;p&gt;You have a say in government - that is its stated goal and purpose. Of the people for the people.</text></comment>
<story><title>How Uber Used Secret “Greyball” Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html?_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lacampbell</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like the US government much, but I like it a lot better than the average multinational. When it comes down to it, we don&amp;#x27;t have more than our choice of devils.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I don&amp;#x27;t like Uber, I can... stop using Uber. What can I do if I don&amp;#x27;t like the service a state provides - can I opt out and stop paying? No, my only option is to flee - which the state will often try and prevent you doing anyway.&lt;p&gt;The state is a huge corporation, that will use force to change you for its services, whether they are good or not, or whether you use them or not. Your only option to avoid this involuntary charge s to flee - and the state reserves the right to employ violence to stop you doing even that.&lt;p&gt;It seems pretty clear to me which is more immoral.</text></item><item><author>maldusiecle</author><text>My perspective is the opposite. In a world where large multinationals have the power to evade the law in a deliberate and systematic way like this, it&amp;#x27;s easy for governments to claim they need the same kind of power. Things like this are exactly what bureaucrats point to when they make their arguments for a surveillance state.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like the US government much, but I like it a lot better than the average multinational. When it comes down to it, we don&amp;#x27;t have more than our choice of devils.</text></item><item><author>HorizonXP</author><text>How diabolical!&lt;p&gt;In a world where privacy has been traded away for convenience, it&amp;#x27;s poetic justice where a startup uses data mining techniques to subvert the government. This is the same government that would have no issues to use the same techniques to spy on its own people for its own motives.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m neither on Uber nor the government&amp;#x27;s side in this case, just simply making an observation. The lack of data privacy seems to be a double-edged sword for users and government&amp;#x2F;law enforcement alike.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anigbrowl</author><text>Sorry, services like Uber have externalities and do not only impact their consumers.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Your only option to avoid this involuntary charge s to flee&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bollocks. People organize for and achieve their political goals by modifying government on a regular basis. Governmental institutions suffer from numerous flaws, but your argument is that government is fundamentally totalitarian which is nonsense.</text></comment>