<story><title>We Can&apos;t Trust Uber</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/opinion/we-cant-trust-uber.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sillysaurus3</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Uber argues that it’s doing only what other technology companies regularly do. That may be true but it only underlines why we need oversight mechanisms that cover all of them.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Such as?&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;re giving your data freely to companies, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&lt;p&gt;Imagine a hypothetical oversight mechanism, then imagine the consequences to tech companies.  Imagine the consequences to startups.  Not Uber; I&amp;#x27;m talking about tiny, early-stage startups.&lt;p&gt;Airbnb and Dropbox have enriched my life.  I&amp;#x27;d hate for regulatory burden to prevent such startups from forming in the first place.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t a hypothetical concern.  The finance industry is so regulated that you can&amp;#x27;t easily form a finance startup without having a lot of connections or a lot of money.  Same for the healthcare sector, as far as I&amp;#x27;ve heard.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sdrothrock</author><text>&amp;gt; If you&amp;#x27;re giving your data freely to companies, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&lt;p&gt;This argument doesn&amp;#x27;t make much sense to me.&lt;p&gt;What if I said,&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; If you&amp;#x27;re giving your money freely to banks, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&lt;p&gt;I think the crux of the issue is that if I get a car ride with Uber, I have a reasonable expectation that I am paying for the service of a car ride. There is no reasonable expectation on my part that I&amp;#x27;m giving them money for a car ride AND ALSO giving them the information about me&amp;#x2F;my ride to use freely, regardless of what the TOS may say.&lt;p&gt;The expectation on the customer&amp;#x27;s part is that ride remain private, much like anything that goes on in the doctor&amp;#x27;s office. The reality, of course, does not match that expectation, which is why I think there should be some hypothetical oversight mechanism that manages the differences between the customer&amp;#x27;s expectation and Uber&amp;#x27;s reality.&lt;p&gt;Just because Uber has data on me doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that I have given it to them to do whatever they want with it.</text></comment>
<story><title>We Can&apos;t Trust Uber</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/opinion/we-cant-trust-uber.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sillysaurus3</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Uber argues that it’s doing only what other technology companies regularly do. That may be true but it only underlines why we need oversight mechanisms that cover all of them.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Such as?&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;re giving your data freely to companies, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&lt;p&gt;Imagine a hypothetical oversight mechanism, then imagine the consequences to tech companies.  Imagine the consequences to startups.  Not Uber; I&amp;#x27;m talking about tiny, early-stage startups.&lt;p&gt;Airbnb and Dropbox have enriched my life.  I&amp;#x27;d hate for regulatory burden to prevent such startups from forming in the first place.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t a hypothetical concern.  The finance industry is so regulated that you can&amp;#x27;t easily form a finance startup without having a lot of connections or a lot of money.  Same for the healthcare sector, as far as I&amp;#x27;ve heard.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smacktoward</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; If you&amp;#x27;re giving your data freely to companies, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you&amp;#x27;re taking patent medicines freely, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you&amp;#x27;re eating tainted meat freely, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you&amp;#x27;re driving on roads used by other drivers in poorly maintained cars freely, I don&amp;#x27;t understand what kind of oversight mechanism could or should protect you.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Etc. etc. etc.</text></comment>