Brief: Uber’s CEO tried to trick Apple. It backfired.

Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber. Image credit: Wikimedia.

• It’s another account of Travis’ win-at-all-cost ethos. In 2015, Uber had a problem. Uber drivers in China were using stolen iPhones to set up dozens of accounts. They would then accept ride requests from these fake accounts to get the incentives that Uber was giving out to drivers to take on more jobs.
• To fix this, however, required fingerprinting iPhones with a small piece of code, making the phone trackable even after its data was erased. However, this broke Apple’s rules.
• Uber CEO Travis Kalanick then told his engineers to “geofence” Apple’s head office in Cupertino. It would identify Apple engineers inspecting Uber’s app and manipulate the code to obscure the app’s fingerprinting ability. However, Apple’s engineers from outside its headquarters found out.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook called Travis into a meeting, gave him a tongue-lashing, and threatened to pull the app if Uber doesn’t comply with Apple’s policies. Travis gave in.

Source: The New York Times

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