Don’t let Uber take you for a ride | Letters

I reject Uber completely: not primarily because it pays drivers too little - which may now change temporarily in the UK (Report, 29 October), until Uber fires them all - but because of its injustice to passengers themselves. One basic injustice is that Uber requires riders to run a proprietary app. A proprietary program is controlled by a company and gives the company power over whoever runs it. This is wrong in itself, and often tempts the company to design the program to snoop on users or otherwise mistreat them (see http://gnu.org/proprietary/).

The other basic injustice of Uber is that it makes customers identify themselves - and records where they go. If Uber or similar services replace today's taxis, we will all suffer a loss of freedom. The data Uber collects is easily available to the state (see http://gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html).