Uber and Trump are peas in a pod and my hero David Plouffe has not left his Uber job in the wake of the current flap over Uber's Greyball tactic which it has used for years. That tactic is ingenious, as described in today's New York Times. It is a high-tech means of avoiding harm. It is used to protect drivers and also to give the high sign to law enforcement and regulatory types who want to keep the upstart company from operating.
This is a sort of keystone cop thing. And it has to remind you of the Donald who is the champion at walking the tightrope between ethics and law.
Greyball fakes you out
Greyball enables Uber to ferret out anyone it does not like on the basis of a well-stocked data mine. If Agent X is hailing a ride as part of a sting operation, Greyball will flag Agent X as a bad guy. Agent X is a good guy of course. All he wants to do is enforce a city's right to determine who gets income for rides.
Uber is not loved by entrenched taxi operators. The service is sometimes quicker and cheaper and even more polite. Other times it is not so great. Everyone's opinion depends on their experience.
Uber and Trump
So the reality is that Uber is just like Donald Trump. You either love Uber or not. The renegade company will defend Greyball just like renegade Donald will go to the wall on Russia.The president will finally say whatever we did was completely fair and you guys are sore losers.
How Uber used a tool called “Greyball” to fool authorities in cities where it operated illegally. https://t.co/e661BA9J1w pic.twitter.com/5YQgGwxqjr
— NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) March 3, 2017
Our new wanna fight environment
Is this confused charge and counter-charge environment so bad? Shouldn't we look at it as less harmful than an evening of shock and awe courtesy of Dick Cheney and company?
Should we pontificate about the return of Gordon Gecko? Would our morality be assuaged by the obliteration of Uber?
Harm is the measure
Harm must be the measure of anything we think is good or evil. Personal opinions are best accompanied by actual experience. Since I have never even hailed an Uber and detest using apps on my phone, I am ready to say that Greyball machinations are only relatively harmful. Nothing counts as absolute harm until someone is killed. Let's get used to living in a pickle and sorting things out in terms of harm done.
