This was either going to be in “Rants” or in “Fun Stuff”, hard for me to decide; in the end I chose “Rants.”
Well, this is the big scandal of the day, this time in Europe.
(For now?)
Uber, Macron, and more, much, more: it looks like there was a bit more to this gig economy service than getting a ride by making a cellphone call:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62057321
Excerpts:
“If the police came knocking, Uber had a second line of defence – the “kill switch”, which made it impossible for visiting law enforcement to access the company’s computers.
This would restrict officers’ access to sensitive company data, such as lists of drivers, which the company believed would harm its growth.
The files confirm earlier news reports about the kill switch, and reveal that Mr Kalanick [Uber CEO] himself activated the system at least once.
“Please hit the kill switch ASAP. Access must be shut down in AMS [Amsterdam],” an email from his account says.
…..
“The Uber Files are a trove of more than 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files involving conversations, spanning 2013 to 2017.
They were leaked to the Guardian, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a number of media organisations including BBC Panorama.
They reveal, for the first time, how a $90m-a-year lobbying and public relations effort recruited friendly politicians to help in its campaign to disrupt Europe’s taxi industry.
While French taxi drivers staged sometimes violent protests in the streets against Uber, Mr Macron – now president – was on first name terms with Uber’s controversial boss Travis Kalanick, and told him he would reform laws in the firm’s favour.
Uber’s ruthless business methods were widely known, but for the first time the files give a unique inside view of the lengths it went to in achieving its goals.
They show how ex-EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes, one of Brussels’ top officials, was in talks to join Uber before her term ended – and then secretly lobbied for the firm, in potential breach of EU ethics rules.
At the time, Uber was not just one of the world’s fastest-growing companies – it was one of the most controversial, dogged by court cases, allegations of sexual harassment, and data breach scandals.
Eventually shareholders had enough, and Travis Kalanick was forced out in 2017.“
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
