Uber Apply For Patent To AI System That Could Be Used To Source Victims For Driver Predators

It’s been alleged that Uber may soon be patenting a system of facial recognition which will distinguish whether the passenger is a regular rider or a licensing regulation office.... but like their previous GreyBall system. 

They hope to get this under the radar by announcing the system will  identifying drunk passengers with artificial intelligence, according to information published on Thursday. 

They are saying with the technology, Uber could better tailor its ride options for customers, but opponents believe it’s another system to deceive the regulators. 

The patent application describes a system that learns how you typically use the Uber app, (as did GreyBall) so that it can identify unusual behaviour (like compliance perhaps)  

The system relies on an algorithm to weigh a variety of factors, including typos, how precisely a user clicks on links and buttons, walking speed, and how long it takes to request a ride. The time of day, and where a ride is requested may also be considered. In other words Uber will be spying on and collecting masses of data from its users. 

For example, it's a good bet that a person walking down a street at 1 a.m. Saturday in a nightlife district while clumsily typing probably isn't sober.

Uber driver have a history of serious sexual assault on drunk passengers. Will predators working for Uber who haven’t had proper DBS checks be using this system to source new victims? 

The patent also says that the service Uber provides to the user could change, as a result. More secrecy !!!

Uber states: Drivers may be warned of their passenger's state and riders in an especially unusual state may only be matched with drivers with relevant experience or training,.... but it’s generally felt that the system could well be used by  drivers with unsafe previous!!!

At best victims could be sourced by unscrupulous Uber drivers, to be charged unnecessary cleaning fees of up to £100. Uber has recent from for this practise used by drivers to inflate their earnings.

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Totally Failing London Part 2 ..... Special Announcement From TfLTPH to clear Uber's Name.

TfL have said on a number of occasions that they've never shown grace or favour towards Uber, the eHail Minicab app that were last year refused a new licence on the grounds the were not fit and proper to hold a Private Hire operators licence.

This week we heard news of a really nasty attack on a woman and baby. The name of the alleged The checker was published by the police who wanted to interview the suspect. 

A few posts appeared on social media linking the name of the suspect with TFL's private hire licence checker web page. 

But the agency who say they have shown no grace or favour to a certain currently unlicensed Minicab firm, have put out this statement first thing this morning. 

Their statement reads :

Police have confirmed that the accused involved in this alleged offence is not a licensed private hire driver in London.

Keeping this in mind.....when have TfLTPH ever contacted the media (TV, Radio or printed press) with a statement saying that the driver in a particular scenario was not a licensed London 'Taxi' driver. Virtually all TV new channels and almost every news agency have mistakenly called rapists, murders, terrorist 'Taxi Drivers', yet not a peep from Mike Brown's merry men at TfLTPH.

Can we now expect this type of statement the next time an alleged Minicab rapist is called a Taxi driver by the BBC!

Can we expect this type of statement the next time the Standard refers to an Uber driver saying:- Taxi Driver ploughs into pedestrians on Exhibition Road??

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Blast From The Past.... With TfL Run By Cowboys, The Nightmare Continues

   After six demos and two all party engagements, the signs still went up!

I remember, many years ago, the Metirpolitan Public Carriage Office, writing to every licensed Taxi driver saying "their must be no, 'no go areas' in London for Taxis". 

"You will be expected to go to any destination anywhere within a six mile radius (now extended to twelve) or within one hour in duration and their must be no exceptions". 

Now we have a Mayor, in charge of a Transport body (TfL), bent on the destruction of our 360 year old trade by creating 'no go areas' for London Taxis.

We've had 8 years of protest, demonstration, consultation after consultation, engagement and negotiation. Apart from the killer on the knowledge protests, which saw top TfL directors moved sideways, we've had little or no success. 

Last year, after six demonstrations and two bouts of negotiations, we lost access through the Bank Junction, financed by TfL just to speed up bus times. Once through the junction the busses hit chaos which negates any advantage made by the ban!!!

This is about to be followed by a complete ban from Tottenham Court Road, plus Oxford Street and Baker Street are still being negotiated.

Caught up in the middle of this attack on our trade, are the unfortunates, and they are the disabled and less mobile members of the public. Mayor Khan is trying to steal the freedom of the disabled, to shop wherever they like, in order to give way and make more room for the able bodied shoppers who he hopes will travel forwards and backwards on the Tubes new Elizabeth line. 

The most scandalous aspect of these plans being....there are two wheelchair users on the board of TfL who have said nothing in defence of the disabled's right of access and to shop on Oxford Street.

There is as always a hidden agenda and Khan obviously feels he can supply many extra passengers to the new line by making it as difficult as possible for taxis to get to popular destinations around central London. 

PROJECT HORIZON:

Taxi Leaks spoke of Project Horizon several years ago and TfL flatly denied it ever existed.

We predicted back then, that under this agenda, there would be Taxi no go areas, followed by Private Hire rest ranks where drivers could wait to be hired and PH WAVs rank spaces at mainline stations. 

Remember the Gold, Silver and Bronze PH ranking system? It's still there in the background as TfL never fully scrap an idea, they just shelve it till the time is right. 

WE ALWAYS SAID TFL WERE A BUNCH OF COWBOYS

With Country Boy Rett Russell in charge of London's Ambulance service, it's only a matter of time before we see NHS Uber ranks at hospitals around Greater London...an going on TfL's present form, outside Greater London too. 

As Harry Wall said, "History is there to learn from".

Seems our trade has learned nothing

After years of negativity and deterioration, fighting the unfair and elitist United Trade Group, did we not all cheer when Val Shawcross announced the UTG would be scrapped and the gagging order known as the engagement policy would be assigned to the shredder. 

So what is plan B.

It seems the old United Trade Group is to be replaced by the new United Trade group, and the old gagging order known as the engagement policy, is to be replaced by a new gagging order called the new engagement policy. Again the right to exclude any group they see fit to exclude.

And the price for signing away the right to criticise TfL in print or on social media, is a seat at the old fold up table.

Towards the end of this year, the Taxi trade will be expected to purchase the new electric TX5, even though neither TfL, the GLA, the Mayor or our trade Orgs, have bothered to explore the health risks associated with the radiation given off from the bank of batteries inside the vehicle. 

Not only has TfL put us in the predicament of not being able to afford this vehicle by selling our work to a NonDomicile company that pays little to no tax, we now learn this week that the government is likely to scrap the subsidy they were going to give Taxis and private hire to go electric.

But tell me this Sadiq, will the new electric Taxis be allowed to use all these no go areas and eventually replace the dirty buses that are running round, 100% on diesel, as replacement batteries proved to be too expensive ?  

A blast from Taxi Leaks past December 2013

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And So It Begins....Visa Doubles Transaction Charges to 8%

£1bn assault on the High Street: Shopkeepers suffer as Visa hikes fees on card payments. Unfortunately, this will give the green light to increase transaction charges for Taxi drivers taking Card payments. 

It's estimated that shopkeepers will pay £1billion extra a year to payments giant Visa after it hiked fees.

The increase comes as the Taxi trade faced a boom in customers who want to pay by card.

But what many passengers don’t realise is that every transaction costs the driver, and Visa has been accused of cashing in, by hiking its fees.

Card sharks: Taxi have seen a massive increase in customers who pay by card for even the cheapest journeys meaning that drivers with company's that charge the extra 20p on top of the transaction percentage, pay even more in fees

Experts warned that some will see their bills more than double. 

Obviously it's not just Taxis who will be affected, payments consultant CMSPI said that increased card costs will hit Europe’s shops for £2billion.

In the UK alone, which has embraced contactless cards and chip and pin, the bill will be £1billion.

Visa Europe has doubled charges since 2015 from an average 4p per transaction to 8p, says CMSPI. 

Firm’s crippling £26,750 card bill 

Hardware store owner Vin Vara says his firm is struggling because of huge bills from credit card companies.

Vara, 58, employs 38 people at 11 Tool Shop stores in London and lost £20,400 in fees last year as shoppers paid by credit card. 

Some 60 per cent of customers pay by card and he expects the bill to rise to £26,750 this year.

He said: ‘People don’t understand the damage this can do. I’m scared for others on the High St about what’s going to happen to them.’

It used to keep just 1.5p of this as profit but now takes 5p after cutting costs, the consultant said.

CMSPI chief executive Brendan Doyle said: ‘This is incredibly disappointing. Visa, a multinational that consistently reports profit margins in excess of 50 per cent on multi-billion-dollar revenues, is piling cost after cost onto retailers and the latest change will be particularly hard on struggling small businesses.’ 

He added that CMSPI will complain to the European Commission about the hike.

Visa has become more aggressive since it was bought by its US sister firm for £15billion in 2016.

Until then, Visa Europe had been owned by banks, including Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, and they made billions from its sale to namesake Visa Inc. 

The American company’s chief executive Charles Scharf plotted to hugely increase fees – in 2015, he said he hoped to ‘expand yields in Europe’.

MPs and business groups called for regulators to step in.

SNP MP Stewart Hosie, of the Treasury Select Committee, said: ‘It’s a scandal card issuers’ fees have increased massively. I would hope and expect card issuers would think again before they impose these costs.’

Meanwhile, High Street retailers face average hikes for UK card fees of 75 per cent, and other European card costs will come close to trebling with an increase of 189 per cent.

James Lowman of the Association of Convenience Stores said: ‘We encourage the Payment Systems Regulator to look closely at these fees to ensure fairness.’

Andrew Cregan, at the British Retail Consortium, also backed intervention by the regulator.

Visa said: ‘The figures quoted are misleading and over-inflated. Our pricing means we can invest in world-leading cybersecurity and consumer protection, in innovation such as contactless and mobile payments, and in providing a global network which enables billions to make purchases safely, securely and reliably.’

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

In the past, we've seen many retailers refuse to take Amex because of the time it takes them to pay up. 

We could now see the same exclusion notices regarding payment with Visa cards.

The London Taxi trade haven't been granted the right to choose how they are paid as our largest org says "it was a done deal'....and it was the drivers who were done!

The trade were promised a increase in bums on seats and a massive publicity campaign from TfL.....it just never happen. 

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Breaking News : LPHCA Has Lost Its Challenge To TFL's New Operators Licence Fees.

The Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) has lost its case against TFL's proposals to increased fees for operators with over 11 vehicles to over £3,000, when they were previously under £3,000. It said the measures could "wipe out" operators, "leaving the futures of many drivers, industry suppliers and others connected to the industry in jeopardy".

The UK's largest private hire trade body, United Private Hire Drivers (UPHD) applied to intervene in the case, which was heard in the High Court, but its application was rejected.

It has argued that the change in fees breaches the Equality Act of 2010 by forcing drivers to shoulder "unfair costs and regulatory burdens" while denying them representation in the stakeholder process.

TfL announced last year that it was increasing charges for private hire operators for the costs of licensing, compliance and enforcement to reflect the growth of the private hire industry and the costs required to regulate it.

The number of privately licensed drivers soared by 78 per cent from 65,000 to 160,000 last year, while the number of vehicles increased from 50,000 to 112,000 over the same period.

TfL expects the cost of enforcement alone to reach £30m - up from a previous estimate of £4m - over the next five years. With the costs of licensing and compliance taken into account, the total reaches £209m over the same period.

​A TfL spokesperson said: “The licence fee changes reflect the increased cost of regulation and associated enforcement activity that has been driven by the huge growth in the private hire industry.

“The changes will fund the additional 250 compliance officers who do a crucial job in driving up standards and ensuring Londoners remain safe. After listening to the views of stakeholders during consultation we amended the fees structure to take into account the potential impact on small and medium-sized operators.

“We consider the changes to fees to be proportionate and will be defending our position.”

James Farrar, chair of the UPHD branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, said: "It's not surprising that gig economy bosses represented by the LPHCA are fighting tooth and nail to pass their cost and regulatory burden on to drivers. But it's dismaying to see TfL work so hard to avoid answering some troubling questions about how it discriminates against 117,000 mostly minority minicab drivers. We will be watching this case very carefully and we'll continue to pursue other avenues to challenge institutional racism at Transport for London."

An Addison Lee spokesman said: “We fully support TfL’s efforts to improve safety in the private hire sector through better regulation and more enforcement officers. Addison Lee recognises that these measures need to be paid for and we are happy to play our part through the increase to our licence fee.”

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Think Your Online Account Details Are Safe ??? Well, Think Again!!!

A hacker who carried out attacks on a string of companies before selling customers’ data on the dark web has been jailed for more than 10 years.

Grant West, 26, carried out cyber-attacks on high street brands including Sainsbury’s, Asda, Uber, Argos and bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral.

He obtained the email addresses of more than 160,000 people and sent them phishing scams masquerading as Just Eat to get their personal data.

West, who used the online identity “Courvoisier”, sold the information on the dark web, stashing his ill-gotten bitcoin profits in online caches.

He was sentenced to 10 years and eight months at Southwark crown court on Friday. The judge, Michael Gledhill, described West as “a one-man cybercrime wave” and said he had “secreted away” some of the £1.6m worth of cryptocurrency that is unaccounted for.

He said: “Regrettably, as this case has demonstrated, security of information held electronically is at best poor. When such inadequate security is confronted with a criminal of your skills and ambition it is totally unfit for purpose and worthless.

“This case should be a wake-up call to customers, companies and the computer industry to the very real threat of cybercrime.”

He added: “You have a deep and impressive knowledge of computers and if you had decided to use your abilities lawfully I have no doubt at all that you would have had a very successful career.

“Unfortunately you saw the potential of using your skills to make a great deal of money not lawfully but by crime, blatant crime and your crimes were highly sophisticated.”

West’s two-and-a-half-year scam came to an end in September last year when he was arrested in a first-class train carriage in the act of accessing the dark web. He had been returning from a trip to visit his girlfriend and co-defendant, Rachael Brooks, in north Wales.

West, who was living in a caravan park in Sheerness in Kent, used the stolen email addresses to send out messages posing as Just Eat with offers of cash rewards in exchange for customers filling out a survey.

Respondents were asked to confirm personal emails and supply extra details in order to obtain the reward, which were then harvested by West. The information, which included everything needed to make purchases online, was then advertised and sold to customers from his dark-web shop.

He built up huge caches of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency in online “wallets”. Police also found £25,000 in cash and a stash of cannabis when they raided his home last year.

The prosecution estimated that the total loss to customers and businesses was more than £1m.

A total of £84,000 was fraudulently taken from compromised accounts held at Barclays, costing the bank more than £300,000 to remedy. British Airways also suffered a £400,000 loss after Avios accounts were targeted.

Just Eat said no financial information was obtained in West’s fraud, but estimated the cost of combating the scam at more than £200,000.

Brooks, of Denbigh, north Wales, was previously given a community order after she admitted using the details of two of West’s victims to buy herself a bikini online.

West previously admitted a string of charges including conspiracy to defraud, unauthorised modification of computer material, possession and supply of cannabis, possessing criminal property and money laundering.

He has a number of previous convictions, including drug offences and other frauds.

Anna Mackenzie, defending, said West has been a cannabis user since the age of 14 and suffered from low self-esteem, lack of confidence, anxiety and depression.

“He has expressed remorse and shame and acknowledges his irresponsibility, selfishness, greed and hunger to succeed,” she said. “He wishes to offer apologies to the victims and businesses affected by his actions.”

Source : The Guardian.

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Sean Paul Day and Mirna Borne In London Taxi Radio : Subject, The Apps.

SPD ON LTR

By Mirna Borne / May 29, 2018/ Podcast, SPD at LTR/

Host this week @seanpaulday, Presenters, @mirnaborne

SPD discusses App regulation and criticises the taxi hailing apps for not applying conditions to prevent unsavories  from accessing the platform.

A call for Apps to declare their hand and commit to being ‘plying’ Apps.

Does this put Plying 4 Hire back on the map ? In our opinion it should never have gone away.

SPD asks, what movie and what track would you take with you to a deserted island ?

Also, TAXIAPP, Taxileaks News-Desk and much more ….

A

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