I gotta say, I'm not really seeing the creepy / cringey / evil / whatever-else here...<p>Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. I personally think a tiny peek like this into the data, much like the usage posts that OKCupid, YouPorn, and others give, is neat.
To me, it's not even the use of data <i>per se</i> that is most creepy about this post. Really, the tone of the essay seems to revel in "having 'fun' with user data," as if a sophomore at a university wrote it.<p>I mean, I found the idea behind the post interesting: of course you can analyze trends in ridership to draw interesting conclusions. At the end of the day, however, it's a horrible idea to say "Hey, we know which of you are being 'frisky' and where!"<p>Perhaps with a different motivation, this post wouldn't be nearly as ruinous. How about ridership patterns of sick or socioeconomically disadvantaged people? That's the kind of data that can change lives for the better.
Stuff like this is one of the many reasons I love archive.org. I think i's really important to capture historical artifacts for future analysis.<p>The service they provide doesn't allow the "Ministry of Truth"[1] to doctor historical documents to meet their present day narrative.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth</a>
In another deleted post [0] the author talks about using a name-to-gender API to look at ride locations by gender, which implies that these analyses were <i>not</i> done using anonymized data.<p>[0] <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827195715/http://blog.uber.com/2012/01/09/uberdata-san-franciscomics/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20140827195715/http://blog.uber....</a>
Given the time frames they looked at, couldn't a bunch of these be people going to a pub, and then leaving after last call?<p>This would also explain the spike near the weekend, among other things.
Off-topic: Because of situations like these, I'm surprised that part of the checklist when launching a PR blog is not: "Block googlearchive/archive.org robots"<p>There have been very, very few times when a company's webpage was down and I needed to go to google-archive or archive.org to refer to some innocuous information. However, the times that I've used those sites to gather evidence of possible whitewashing? Many, many times, in comparison.
Comparing Uber to OKCupid is ridiculous.<p>OKCupid is a dating website which deliberately branded themselves as further on the "edgy" and "hookup" side of dating websites. Then you have POF somewhere in the middle, with eHarmony way on the other side, quite opposite of OKCupid.<p>I'm not sure why Uber would want to put themselves anywhere on that same scale (i.e. aligning your brand with notions of sex and one night stands). There's a time and a place for everything, and for edgy data analysis like this -- that "place" is edgy dating websites who want to be known for hooking up.<p>It's unprofessional and out of line with their brand image, obviously why the post got deleted. IMO this further validates all the bad press the media has been publishing about Uber.
The Boston anomaly and map is interesting. The requirements are a trip from 10pm-4am and a trip again 4-6 hours later. However, due to the MBTA shutting down around 12:30am and bars closing at 2am the criteria captures just about any partygoer.<p>So if you took an uber to some bar/club/friends at 10-11pm and again after 2am when all bars or the T is closed, you're likely counted. I doubt this represents customers having one night stands and is likely just a heat map. This is further explained by the small pocket in Somerville that is not accessible by the train, but by bus where people may opt for an uber.<p>That's not to say that there are no rides of glory or whatever the hell kids call it today.
One more thing--<p>Would google publish data that shows how searches for porn spike during different times of the day or times of the year, as if it's some "cool and hip and edgy!" insight?<p>I don't think so.<p>And for the same reason they don't (whatever reason that is), it would probably also be wise for Uber not to post stuff like this.<p>I really don't care, nor am I offended. I'm just speculating that Uber doesn't have the brightest team of execs and still have a lot of "growing up" to do.
Curious to see how companies deal with this kind of data because, ignoring the creep-factor, it is thoroughly interesting to see these sort of patterns emerge and the only way you can find out this kind of stuff is to track people.<p>It's the actions of the unscrupulous minority that ruin this for the rest of us. I personally believe that most of the time when companies say "We simply aren't that interested in you." they're probably telling the truth. Stats is pointless if you look at single points. It only takes one person to snoop on an ex or to blow everything up. Unfortunately you have to mitigate that risk, but proper database sanitisation before handing over to the analysts should be sufficient. Provided there is no overlap between the sensitive database and the one the analysts have access to there shouldn't be a problem.<p>I guess it's a side effect of becoming 'big' that you can no longer run these kind of public posts without looking extremely unprofessional.
So they blog about it in aggregate. It's not like they would know exactly who each of those riders were and would think about using that data for anything than the lulz. I'm sure this sort of data wouldn't be interesting for social engineering purposes in the hands of 'others' as well.
It is a bit unsettling that this information is out there, but I agree that it is fairly obvious that they have this data. And as long as they are not exposing the individuals, I don't see it as irresponsible to publish something like this.<p>There was a related story published recently, NYC Taxicab Dataset Exposes Strip Club Johns and Celebrity Trips<p><a href="http://research.neustar.biz/2014/09/15/riding-with-the-stars-passenger-privacy-in-the-nyc-taxicab-dataset/" rel="nofollow">http://research.neustar.biz/2014/09/15/riding-with-the-stars...</a>
I think it's a lot of fun and they pulled some interesting data from it. There are far more pressing concerns in the world right now, people have sex sometimes NBD.
"You people are fascinating."<p>Is this data fascinating? I guess the time of year patterns and holiday anomalies are interesting but aside from that this behavior seems obvious?
blog article was 2.5 yrs ago, they were pulling out all the stops to get traction.<p>now they have critical mass they can transition into "full boring corp speak"<p>HN don't throw stones, what boundaries are pushing to get traction right now?
Uber employees are the kind of people who kept a telescope in their bedroom window to peep on girls down the street. I'll never understand why they're still in business.