Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Uber watches the watchmen. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
MONDAY, MARCH 6 2017 By Darrell Etherington

Uber's Greyball program, smartphone sustainability and Facebook unleashes the power of negativity. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for March 6, 2017.

1. Uber's bad times roll on

Uber has faced no end of trouble lately, which is of course most its own fault, but the latest bombshell might be one of the most damaging for the company. NYT's Mike Isaac reports that the ride-hailing company used data processing techniques to ID code enforcement officials trying to stop it from operating illegally and denied them service.

The tactic is part of Uber's program to identify and block anyone using its service in violation of their terms of service, but no one's very likely to feel okay about Uber using this level of manipulation of the information it collects. Meanwhile, one of its key senior personnel also departed the company.

2. Fairphone wants to break the smartphone upgrade cycle

A decent number of people reading this probably tend to upgrade their smartphone every year – but Fairphone wants its customers to keep theirs for as many as five. That's part of its mission to make mobile devices more sustainable, and less wasteful. But can their mission survive consumer FOMO?

3. Facebook tests an actual dislike button

THUMBS DOWN???? Facebook, it seemed like you would never make this actually possible, but now it looks like it's testing a dislike in its Messenger app. Fair warning, FB: If you introduce this to the main Facebook app and homepage, I will never not dislike anything ever again.

4. Researchers discover free Uber ride bug

If you haven't already #DeletedUber, there's a bug that allows free Uber rides forever – but it's already patched, so don't get your hopes up (unless you can find another one). Uber actually fixed it the day it was discovered, since the researcher that found it reported it to the company immediately in exchange for $5K.

5. MIT's new robot can detect when it's made a mistake via your brain

This brain-sensing bot can tell when you know it's made a mistake, and then correct its action as a result. It's a pretty amazing feat of machine learning and neurological activity monitoring, and another step towards robots that really get you.

6. Jay Z's new VC firm is here

Arrive is Roc Nation's new venture arm, which will have a fund in the future, and which will also provide branding, business building and other service support to portfolio companies. If I was a consumer startup, I'd want their help above that of other, more traditional firms.

7. Fitbit sort of releases a new product

Fitbit may be embattled, but it's launching a new wearable – or a mostly old one with some new tricks, including a heart rate monitor and better sleep tracking. Wearables market still a dud, FYI.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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