Uber and Greyball Software

I think we all have heard about the recent Uber news that the US criminal investigation is investigating over Uber use of 'Greyball' software. But what is a Grayball software, and how does Uber use it. In this blog, I will cover the recent Uber issue that is related to Grayball.

First, let me provide you with the definition of Grayball

Greyball is a software tool used by the ride-hailing service Uber to identify and deny service to certain riders, including riders who Uber suspects of violating its terms of service.(1) 

The Beginning of the problem: 

The story began when a reporter from the New York Times did some an investigation about how Uber is using a software to manipulate authorities and law enforcements in places where Uber services are not allowed to operate. The software shows a fake version of its app to government officials suspected of conducting raids operations on drivers. This program used geolocation data, credit card information, social media accounts, and other data to profile app users as if they are normal riders or government officials. The software was used in locations that Uber was banned from operating its services, such as Boston, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland, and Oregon, as well as France, Australia, China, South Korea and Italy. 

Uber claims that using this software was part of a Violation of Terms of Service in which Grayball is being used to analyze credit card, device identification, location data and other factors to predict whether a request for a ride was legitimate or not. However, the company is misusing it to evade local transportation officials and government officials to operate in locations where should not be supposed to work there. Uber prohibited the use of Greyball for this purpose shortly after the New York Times revealed its existence in March 2017, claiming the program was created to check ride requests to prevent fraud and safeguard drivers. 

How Grayball works?

Greyball used several methods to identify and deny service to government officials who were investigating Uber for violations of local laws. Those methods included: 

• Geofencing- the use of GPS or RFID technology to create a virtual geographic boundary, enabling software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves an area - Uber would create a digital map that identified the locations of city government offices. If a potential rider attempted to hail a ride from the area around a government building, Greyball would flag the individual as a possible law enforcement agent. 
• If Uber identified a credit card as being associated with a government agency or police union, it would flag that individual in Greyball. 
• Uber employees searched social media profiles to identify possible law enforcement agents. Uber then flagged those individuals in Greyball. 

Well, it seems that 2017 is not good year for Uber so far. It began with the published accusations of sexual harassment and sexism by a female former software engineer at Uber. Then it followed by a leaked video when the CEO arguing with an Uber driver over the fare price change.  Currently, there are two lawsuits: first, a lawsuit from Google’s parent company over the Self-Driving car; the second one is over the usage of Grayball.

As an Uber user, I have some concerns that are related to the collected data by Greyball software. So far, there is no clue about how Uber is going to use these data in future. It could be used not only against government officials, but it also might be used to discriminate their services against a group of customers who might be less profitable or belong to a specific race. Another concern is that in the US, different states have different law and regulations, and the current laws need to be updated. Due to the advancement in information technology, it has become for regulators and law enforcement to create a new law and maintain it with rapidly shifting of the Uber business models and algorithms. Currently, the investigation of Greyball is in its early stages, and we are waiting to see the result whether Uber will be sued and go out of business or nothing will be done regards Uber's unethical practice of misusing technology and data.