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Brian Green, director of technology ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, questioned the motives behind Uber’s data collection. “If the purpose of [Uber’s] surveillance system is to promote trust — if a corporation wants to be trustworthy — they have to allow the public to look at them,” he said. “A lot of tech companies are not transparent. They don’t want the light shone on them.”

Green said Uber’s patents reflect a broader trend in which technology is used as a quick fix for deeper societal issues. “We’re dealing with so many people we don’t know that tech and surveillance steps in to build an artificial trust,” he said.

Brian Green, director of technology ethics, quoted by The Intercept