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Comment by Gys | Hacker News Reader

They have a good argument for doing so...

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/05/20/uber-riders-will-pa...

A similar article was posted here a few days ago.

That is not a good argument at all. It's a side-effect of collecting metrics. Uber has no reason to know the battery status of my phone--them knowing it will not help them improve service to me in any way.

That is not a good argument. That is an asshole invasion of user privacy.

Sorry, I meant that in a sarcastic way

Ah, my apologies. I'm so used to seeing people actually making these arguments.

> Chen promises that Uber does not use this information to pry you to pay surge

You're a bit to quick on the "asshole invasion of privacy".

> .. which sounds like a relief if that’s to be believed.

Maybe.

Even so, it is not related to privacy is it?

There we go, there's the person actually defending them. Nope, I'm not too quick; Uber's a scummy company and this is a blatant invasion of privacy.

No I'm just saying it can be a case of e.g. "don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity".

if you see a person who is dying of thirst you do not jack the price of $1 dollar a bottle to $2 just because you know they are thirsty.

this business practice is unbelievable that it is even legal.

All I said was that they claim NOT to do this within the article.

weird, thats what I'm reading from the article in the link in parent. --> "Chen says users will pay up to 9.9 times in surge if their battery is critical just so they’re not stranded wherever they are (of course, assuming that your driver doesn’t cancel on you after your phone’s dead.)"

It is possible this has happened naturally, say after some big festival or event where 1000s of people call uber at the same time. Or surveys perhaps.

This is what I am talking about

> Chen promises that Uber does not use this information to pry you to pay surge, which sounds like a relief if that’s to be believed.

Because this quote is directly saying they don't do it. While your quote doesn't.

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