UBERTRUST : how Uber represents itself to its customers through its legal and non-legal documents
Noto La Diega, Guido and Jacovella, Luce (2016) UBERTRUST : how Uber represents itself to its customers through its legal and non-legal documents. Journal of Civil and Legal Sciences, 5 (4). 199. ISSN 2169-0170 (https://doi.org/10.4172/2169-0170.1000199)
Preview |
Text.
Filename: Noto-La-Diega-etal-JCLS-2016-how-Uber-represents-itself-to-its-customers-through-its-legal-and-non-legal-documents.pdf
Final Published Version License: Download (384kB)| Preview |
Abstract
This paper examines some of the key factors that contribute to build or erode users’ trust in a platform-based service such as the one provided by Uber Technologies Inc. As clarified by the European Commission, the future Internet cannot succeed without trust of online platforms’ users. The paper explores Uber’s web of relationships with different categories of users, i.e., ‘driver-partners’, ‘riders’, ‘developers’ and ‘business users’ through Uber’s legal and non-legal representations. By analysing Uber ‘legals’ (terms of service, privacy policy, etc.) and the non-legal representations of these norms through the wider Uber community ecosystem (forums, blogs, etc.), it explores how transparency and collective awareness can play a role in sustaining trust. It concludes that the opacity of its ‘legals’ and of its corporate structure could create tensions within the market and undermine the users’ trust. Therefore, the authors recommend that in order to foster trust and ensure fairness, Uber should ensure consistency between its legal and non-legal representation and adopt a more transparent and fair approach in its legals. This would, in turn, empower its users community to participate in the decision making and could provide an example for other platforms.
ORCID iDs
Noto La Diega, Guido ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6918-5398 and Jacovella, Luce;-
-
Item type: Article ID code: 90388 Dates: DateEvent29 June 2016Published22 June 2016AcceptedSubjects: Law > Law (General) Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Strathclyde Law School > Law Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 28 Aug 2024 09:46 Last modified: 02 Oct 2024 00:43 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90388