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posted by janrinok on Thursday June 14 2018, @09:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'll-be-walking-from-now-on dept.

Uber applies for patent to spot drunk passengers

Taxi app company Uber has applied for a patent to use artificial intelligence to determine how drunk potential passengers might be.

The app used to summon rides could also feed other information to the driver, including a passenger's location, how accurately they are typing and even the angle they are holding their phone at.

It could help drivers who do not want to pick up inebriated riders.

But critics said it could also be used to identify vulnerable passengers.

According to the application to the US patent office, the system would spot "uncharacteristic user activity".

Also at The A.V. Club.


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  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday June 15 2018, @01:19AM (8 children)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Friday June 15 2018, @01:19AM (#693285) Journal

    In other words, their AI is nothing more than a tracking system that pings the users location. if they are at a bar for an hour, maybe they're just buzzed or tipsy. Two hours? Most likely drunk but not stammering. Over two hours, get the mop...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by lentilla on Friday June 15 2018, @02:12AM (7 children)

    by lentilla (1770) on Friday June 15 2018, @02:12AM (#693296)

    from the article:

    judge [...] based on how they type, walk and hold their phone

    Perfectly plausible; and coupled with location, time, user parameters and history; likely quite accurate.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 15 2018, @02:30AM (6 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 15 2018, @02:30AM (#693300) Journal

      Permissions. Why do people grant apps so many permissions? Why does a taxi-hailing application need access to all of the hardware on your device? Why does it need access to ANYTHING? An app that calls a taxi should proved one thing, and one thing only. A taxi. It doesn't need anything else. Yet, people grant those permissions - just click through them.

      And, of course, it isn't just a Uber app - it's ALL applications!!

      • (Score: 2) by lentilla on Friday June 15 2018, @04:06AM (5 children)

        by lentilla (1770) on Friday June 15 2018, @04:06AM (#693324)

        Why do people grant apps so many permissions?

        Because there is no way to use the app if the permission isn't granted. (But you already knew that.)

        We will never win a war against unnecessary permissions requirements. My solution is far more simple: sandboxing of apps and provision of curated data. If an app "requires" location data - no problem - give it to them. Just filter it through my rules first. If an app "requires" access to my contact list - fine - give it to them, but surprisingly it contains only fictional entities. Ditto with all the other required data.

        It's the same way we deal passive-aggressive bullies in real life when being reasonable doesn't work. Whenever they "demand" something, we say "yeah, OK" and feed them junk whenever they bother us for something.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 15 2018, @02:04PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 15 2018, @02:04PM (#693485)

          This is a REAL answer to the problem.
          The question is, and I think I know the answer, is it even technically possible to have such a "fake data" shim in non-hacked iPhone or Android?

          • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday June 15 2018, @07:03PM

            by urza9814 (3954) on Friday June 15 2018, @07:03PM (#693647) Journal

            A fake data shim would be nice, and should be possible on Android, although I've never actually seen one...but it's not really necessary as you can just deny those permission to those apps. If your brand of Android doesn't include that feature, get a different one. It's been available in Cyanogenmod/LineageOS for many years, but a similar feature has been included in the official Google builds too since Android 6.0. And Android 6.0 is two and a half years old now. The only reason you wouldn't have that ability on Android is if you bought a phone that either hasn't been updated in years or that was designed to intentionally remove security features. So...don't run software that hasn't been patched for three years, and don't run software that is specifically designed to violate your privacy and restrict your control over it. There's your solution.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 15 2018, @02:32PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 15 2018, @02:32PM (#693501) Journal

          there is no way to use the app if the permission isn't granted

          THAT was the proper answer to my question, as well as the next question. "Why are people using apps that require all those permissions.

          there is no way to use the app if the permission isn't granted

          Fine, I won't use the apps. There is no app that I've ever seen that offers value to pay for all of the data that can be stolen from my device, and from my life.

        • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday June 15 2018, @06:52PM

          by urza9814 (3954) on Friday June 15 2018, @06:52PM (#693640) Journal

          Because there is no way to use the app if the permission isn't granted. (But you already knew that.)

          I just have to go into Settings > Privacy > Privacy Guard and I can retroactively deny any permission to any app. I can also generally deny at runtime...even though you have to approve all the permissions to install the app, for things like microphone access or reading the contact list it'll still pop up an approval dialog the first time the app attempts to use that permission. And I can absolutely still use apps if I deny them access to whatever they want (although obviously certain features may not work right). Most of my apps are not actually given the full permissions that they've requested -- every time I install a new app I go through and deny anything that I don't think it really needs. If your phone doesn't let you do that, it's not because it's "impossible"; it's just because your phone sucks.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:55AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:55AM (#693860)

          We will never win a war against unnecessary permissions requirements.

          It's called Free Software, or software that respects users' freedoms. Due to the nature of Free Software, it is very unlikely to abuse users since it could be trivially modified to not do so. This is why corporations attack it and/or try to ignore it entirely in favor of the more corporate-friendly "open source" movement, which does not maintain that it is unethical for software to not respect users' freedoms.

          Insist on Free Software, or don't be surprised when you are abused. Feeding the proprietary apps false information is only a half-measure, if even that.