But the driver is served by this -- the driver wants the Uber platform to be scalable, available and ensure the 'successfully customer experience' the article refers to, so that they can continue to get paid for providing the rides.

Now, if Uber were offering a free 'lol cats apps' on the app store that surreptitiously ran this protocol in the background of unsuspecting users I think it would be a different case, but running technology that supports the goal of the main app doesn't feel out of bounds to me.