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Man, Uber has really been fumbling lately. Between CEOs sending inappropriate e-mails company-wide, drivers being accused of rape and sexual harassment, and having to suffer the indignity of employing the unfunny Kenny Bania, Uber really was not hoping for the sort of PR coming out of St. Louis this morning. According to the NY Times, a report has surfaced that a driver for Uber (and Lyft, but who really cares) live-streamed and uploaded internet videos of “hundreds of passengers” who were unaware they were being recorded.
Yes, it’s a real-life Taxicab Confessions for 2018. The report caused a lot of stir regarding an invasion of privacy for the riders (in some cases, their names and addresses were revealed) and the lack of oversight of drivers by ridesharing companies. But let’s dive in and take a look at some of the more salient points laid out in the article.
In it, Jason Gargac, 32, a driver for Uber and Lyft from Florissant, Mo., described an elaborate $3,000 rig of cameras that he used to record and live-stream passengers’ rides to the video platform Twitch. Sometimes passengers’ homes and names were revealed.
I might be a total technological noob, but I feel like a $3,000 camera rig is kinda noticeable. Yeah, most of the riders that are getting in this guy’s car are hammered, but it seems like they might notice that there are a massive mic and three high-tech cameras on the dash.
Mr. Gargac said he earned $3,500 from the streaming, through subscriptions, donations and tips.
$3,500 per month? Or total? And how long has he been streaming? This is just to satisfy my curiosity, to know if he made more on Twitch than thirteen-year-olds sipping Red Bull and streaming Fortnite.
He said that at first he had informed passengers that he was recording them, but the videos felt “fake” and “produced.”
Yeah, no shit. I think most people who were told that they were being filmed on an Uber ride would try to be a bit more dynamic and gregarious. Me, I’d just keep doing what I always do: scroll Twitter and do my best to avoid any unnecessary human interaction.
“I’ve had a few offline conversations with some folks, and they suggested getting rid of the stored vods as step #1 of trying to calm everyone down,” he said, referring to on-demand videos on Twitch. “I’ve done that,” [Gargac] added, “for now.”
Spoken like a true terrorist. Yeah, I’ve done the right thing that most decent human beings would have done from the very start if they woke up from a rage-induced blackout and realized they’d been videotaping people without their consent. But maybe I’ll use that semi-incriminating information for leverage in the future. Who knows!?
His story appears to be full of contradictions. Mr. Gargac live-streamed people without their knowledge as he tried to become a police officer. He started driving in order to record and broadcast people.
He’s trying to become a police officer? Yeah good luck with that, last thing a police department needs is bringing on a clear dumbass with no ability to handle a PR nightmare. And the last thing police unions want is someone who is willing to constantly record himself on the job.
He asked a Post-Dispatch reporter to not use his full name in the story, to protect his privacy.
Oh, of course. We wouldn’t want to invade your privacy “guy who did something bad.” It’s a good thing that bad thing you did wasn’t invading the privacy of other people. Boy, would your face be red if that was the case.
“What we’re seeing with this driver is just a totally different game,” [Ms. Rosenblat] said. “This is, ‘How can I monetize passengers as content?’”
Is it possible to tip high enough to prevent the driver from recording your ride? Is that tantamount to extortion? Maybe George Costanza was right about this whole system.
Missouri law allows a person to record others without their consent, said Ari Waldman, director of New York Law School’s Innovation Center for Law and Technology. He said victims could theoretically sue for invasion of privacy, but “would need to show that the back of an Uber is a place where we can and should be expected to be private.”
Given the number of Uber hookups I’ve heard about, any lawyer worth his salt can annihilate that argument.
Before it disappeared, Mr. Gargac’s channel had about 4,500 followers and about 100 subscribers who paid $5 a month to support his broadcasts.
This is perhaps the biggest shocker of the whole article. Who the hell is paying $5 a month to watch a guy drive people around in an Uber? How were so many people tipping (or a few people tipping so much) to support this endeavor? God, people are weird. .
*Author’s note, I am terrified that this guy is a reader who got his idea from me. If Mr. Gargac is among you, know that these articles are meant to be satire, not actual suggestions.
[via New York Times]
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@joshetyler
@joshetyler
“Who the hell is paying $5 a month to watch a guy drive people around in an Uber?”
Have you been browsing the internet with parental controls all this time or are you seriously unfamiliar how dark it can get? Think 4Chan, Reddit Incels, etc.
Incels aren’t a laughing matter, but dammit I just can’t take them seriously
This is the same guy who thinks country clubs should be less focused on golf. Does this really surprise you?
in reference to Will’s article linked in this article about the Uber CEO email leak where he speaks about the importance of the #9 and how it should not be discussed externally….in Chinese, 9 symbolizes eternity or long lasting. This is a great way to be cryptically corny as a tech company in order to breed a culture of koolaid drinking under the guidance of the “Making the world a better place” idea…More importantly, 9 in Masonic/Occult numerology is the numerical value of the all seeing Eye of Province that is symbolized on the $1 bill. This aligns more to the truth of what Uber actually represents when you realize that they aren’t a ride share service, instead, they are a massive data mining operation cleverly masked behind giving drunk people rides to their houses for money while opening up ad inventory in their app to make revenue. just wait until they collect enough of the data on drunk people and sell it to health insurance companies in order to increase costs on alcohol related disease treatments/drugs lol
Meh. Dying ain’t that bad. I’ll stick to the drinking.
I’m really scared that this guy took his rig across state to KC for a night. I’ve been really drunk in the back of an Uber, I don’t want that shit on the internet.
The people paying 5 dollars per month were definitely hoping for a Fake Taxi STL edition.
Pretty sure my friend and I took a ride with him when we were in STL…
Update: friend just confirmed we took a ride with him. And we are two, pretty attractive, mid-20s girls so if anyone has insight into this matter, help a girl out!
How do you know?
Under past rides in the Uber app, my friend found his profile on a ride we took.