Uber extracts worker data continuously even when workers earn no fare

Evidence

Uber is perhaps the best example of this development, as it collects data on all of its rides, as well as data on drivers, even when they are not receiving a fare. Data about what drivers are doing and how they are driving are used in a variety of ways in order to beat out competitors. For instance, Uber uses the data to ensure that its drivers are not working for other taxi platforms; and its routing algorithms use the data on traffic patterns to plot out the most efficient path for a trip. Data are fed into other algorithms to match passengers with nearby drivers, as well as to make predictions about where demand is likely to arise. In China, Uber monitors even whether drivers go to protests. — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 73

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels Zuboff’s surveillance capitalism but with a different framing — here data extraction is a competitive labor-control tool, not a behavioral-futures commodity. Strong material for contrasting the two frameworks. — connects to: Platforms extract value from each transaction without absorbing employment obligations — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 220
• SHARE: Uber tracking drivers off-fare and monitoring protest attendance in China is a vivid, freestanding fact worth sending to anyone working on platform labor.

Related

• Uber manipulates driver-facing algorithmic information to depress wages (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Platforms extract value from each transaction without absorbing employment obligations #expands (0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 220