Tech
Why Apple threatened to yank Uber off app store
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly threatened to have Uber’s iPhone app pulled from the App Store in 2015 after learning that the ride-hailing firm had secretly been identifying and tagging iPhones even after its app was deleted from the phone.
According to the New York Times, Cook apparently pulled up CEO Travis Kalanick over the scheme that violated Apple’s privacy rules.
“So, I’ve heard you’ve been breaking some of our rules,” Cook reportedly told Kalanick during an in-person meeting at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. He demanded that Uber end the practice or risk being kicked off the App Store.
Read also: Scientist develop new gelatine model that can stand in for human skin
A person who saw Kalanick after the meeting said he looked “shaken by Mr. Cook’s scolding” NYT reports.
Losing access to millions of iPhone users would be disastrous for Uber’s business so Kalanick conceded and put an end to the practice.
The Times reports the practice began in 2014 when Uber was tackling widespread account fraud in markets like China where people were buying stolen, erased iPhones and then create multiple fake email addresses and Uber rider accounts.
They would then request rides via these accounts, accept these rides and cash in on Uber’s incentives for drivers to take more rides, earning them more money.
RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears
Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...