The algorithms that underlie most Silicon Valley bigwigs are generally locked into the name of “trade secret protection,” but that’s an excuse that’s starting to wear down a bit. slim in recent months. Maybe it’s because these companies are so much harder to regular or to compete against when we do not ask them to reveal their respective secret sauces. Maybe it’s because these secret sauces control the income of a growing part of small business owners and temporary or independent workers same. Maybe it’s because they were discovered to be partial in all In ways, and hiding the details in the name of “trade secrets” only ends up harming people who use the platform.
All of these issues came to a head this week when four Uber drivers based on the united kingdom presented suit against the company’s European branch in an Amsterdam district court on Monday, on the grounds that the company’s refusal to share driver data with, well, drivers, is technically a violation of European data protection Laws If this group can get Uber to exploit the data in question, it could offer an unprecedented window on how the company algorithmically profiles both EU-based and US-based controllers on its platform, so unfair or not.
To give a bit of history, the four drivers behind the lawsuit are members of the App Drives & Couriers Union:or ADCU for short:a group that works with a non-profit organization called Exchange of worker information in the hope of collecting driver application data that can be used for, for example, collective bargaining later.
According to the record, the four drivers attempted to ask Uber for the data collected by their Uber Driver app, which not only collects data from, for example, a particular Uber ride, but collects data from everything from acceleration to location during every car trip the driver does, even if it is done without a passenger. In total, the dossier describes more than 26 categories of data, which, at least on paper, are grouped primarily to assess supply and demand, and find out what the current fares should be for a given Uber ride in a given neighborhood on a given day.
But as described in the record, some of this data is also used to profile the drivers in question. As the record explains, Uber maintains strict vigilance. profile of each driver on the platform, and use metrics such as a driver’s arrival times and trip rating to take notes on their “level of professionalism” or “navigation skills”. When the four UK drivers behind the lawsuit asked Uber to exploit this data, and more, hoping the company would meet Europe’s requirements. strong data laws“None of them recovered any of this profile data. What’s worse, only two of them got any No data at all, which means Uber, in this case, is one of those tech companies that they think can get away with it. ignoring GDPR. And just like those tech companies caught cheating on GDPR, Uber can, in turn, be fined thousands and thousands of dollars until they correct this particular evil.
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Until that happens, the ADCU has established a month background for people looking to support the case, accumulating 345 pounds (approximately $ 436 USD) since the case started operating in the morning. They’re also encouraging all Uber drivers and couriers to have Uber Eats submit their own requests for company data, hoping that more voices and more pressure on the company may compel them to make a change. But considering Uber’s track record of shitty behavior Towards drivers, this Union could be facing an uphill battle, even if local data protection laws are on their side.
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