Ride-sharing company Uber has seen its stock drop in the Apple App Store following a slew of bad press last week.
Buzzfeed reported on Nov. 17 that a senior executive with the company, Emil Michael, had suggested hiring opposition researchers to dig up dirt on journalists who wrote critically of Uber, specifically PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy. Soon after, the news outlet reported that the company’s New York general manager had accessed a reporter’s ride logs on multiple occasions without her permission.
According to app tracking site App Annie, Uber’s download rank fell from 24th to 48th between Nov. 15-24, despite a spike in downloads over last weekend.
View Uber’s rank history below:
The company announced that it had hired a privacy expert to review its policies in the wake of the reports.
No. TPM, you’ve missed the heart of the story here.
App store users are most likely not down voting because the reporter was threatened, but instead because USERS FEEL THREATENED by the invasion of privacy due to the revelation that Uber has a ‘god mode’.
Completely missed that in this little abstract article.
I updated my phone about a week ago and Uber’s app was automatically uploaded. I promptly removed it.
Well, the revelation that Uber can and does track their customers came about because of potential threats leveled against the reporter.
So ignoring what brought it all to light is a bit abstract, too.
Yes, kinda like the watergate article focusing on the door locks being taped over and the building security risk that is.
I dunno, anything with the word uber associated with it has always reminded me of Germany in it’s bad mojo phases, same as using the word homeland.
I just find it creepy as a marketing handle.