logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2022
31m 49s

Inflection Is the Background Check Compa...

Vice
About this episode

Apps have made our life so convenient haven’t they? With the push of a button you can order Postmates, book an Airbnb, or even call an Uber. But what happens when the apps stop taking your calls? What happens when they shut you out completely?


It’s happening more and more. In a bid to increase user safety, companies like Airbnb and Uber are turning to third parties to run background checks for them. A lot of it is automated and the background checkers make a lot of mistakes. So what happens if you’ve been a five star guest on Airbnb but a decades old run in with the cops suddenly makes you a pariah?


Not much, it turns out.


On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard senior editor Samantha Cole comes on to talk about Inflection, the company running background checks for Uber, Airbnb and DraftKings.


Stories discussed in this episode:


Banished for an Unleashed Dog: Airbnb Bans Bewilder Guests and Hosts


‘Consumers Get Screwed’: Airbnb’s and Uber’s Background-Check Company Keeps Getting Sued


We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 


Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Feb 2024
Why Congress's Fears of Russian Space Nukes Is Political Theatre
Cyber is a show covering a diverse range of topics. We’ve covered everything from crypto to AI to online cults. If it touches technology or online culture, we’ll talk about it. That’s how you get an episode like today’s, which is both a deep dive into professional wrestling’s lat ... Show More
1 h
Feb 2024
AI Deepfakes Are Everywhere and Congress is Completely Out of Their Depth
An AI-generated Biden called voters in New Hampshire ahead of the primary and told them to stay home. X locked down the search term “Taylor Swift” after AI-generated nudes of the pop giant flooded the platform. In the wake of both scandals, Congress has struggled with how to figh ... Show More
50m 29s
Feb 2024
Tech Used to Be Bleeding Edge, Now it’s Just Bleeding
Ten years ago, Big Tech reached a peak. Facebook had wormed its way into the lives of billions of people. The mainstream news covered iPhones releases like they were Taylor Swift concerts. Elon Musk was promising to colonize Mars and fill the streets with self-driving cars. In 20 ... Show More
1h 7m
Recommended Episodes
May 2020
Facebook's oversight board is the "League of Nations", Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky's master class on leadership, and a prediction about Uber's numbers
Kara and Scott talk about Facebook's new oversight board and whether it will be effective in controlling content on the platform. They discuss layoffs at Airbnb and Uber, as well as Uber's investment in the scooter company, Lime. We take a moment of "Comic Relief" with writer and ... Show More
50m 41s
Jun 2020
Uber vs Lyft | Kill or Be Killed | 4
Uber is facing blowback from all directions — the taxi industry, riders, and the most important man in tech: Apple's Tim Cook. Uber’s been engaged in some disreputable activity, and it's finally catching up with them. Lyft forges ahead and forms a new alliance to fight back again ... Show More
25m 13s
Jun 2023
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi dropped by the Acquired studio for an Eats delivery, so we broke out the cameras and asked him to hang out for a wide-ranging conversation. :) We talk about his 20 years working with Barry Diller, starting his career at Allen & Company, how the Uber CEO ... Show More
1h 36m
Jun 2023
🏠🚗 “Uber vs Airbnb” — The Sharing Showdown. Photoshop’s artificial reality. Lionel Messi’s soccer equity.
Uber just launched an “airbnb for cars” feature in the app — because Uber may be the biggest threat to Airbnb (and vice versa). Adobe’s photoshop is letting AI create images out of thin air — because artificial intelligence can lead to an artificial reality. And Lionel Messi just ... Show More
19m 44s
Dec 2021
Guest Episode: Decoder with Nilay Patel: Why the future of work is the future of travel, with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky prides himself on thinking very differently than other CEOs, and his answers to the Decoder questions about how he structures and manages his company were almost always the opposite of what I’m used to hearing on the show. Airbnb is pretty much a single te ... Show More
1h 9m
Sep 2022
☄️ “Party in my Space Suite” — Hilton’s outer-space hotel. Uber’s hack job. The mall’s bicep hero.
The #1 way to save your sinking local shopping mall? The gym (Barry’s Bootcamp is the new Bloomingdale’s). The newest company to jump into the space race is… Hilton Hotels. And first Uber was hacked, then the Grand Theft Auto video game got hacked, and it’s all because of a teena ... Show More
18m 45s
Jul 2022
🪳“Twitter has termites” — Elon’s $44B excuse. Truff’s hot sauce $trategy. Uber’s secret files.
Elon Musk is canceling his deal with Twitter and here’s how we’re visualizing it: A house with termites. Truff created the most expensive hot sauce on earth, and it’s because Truff created an Instagram handle before it created a sauce. And 124,000 pages of secret Uber files just ... Show More
20m 56s
Jun 2020
Uber vs Lyft | Damage Control | 5
February 2017, Super Bowl Sunday. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is taking a black car home when he gets in an altercation with the driver. LIttle does he know, the entire exchange has been captured on a dashcam recording. And when it goes viral, Kalanick will have to fight for his rep ... Show More
24m 18s
Jun 2020
Uber vs Lyft | Race to the Bottom | 3
It's 2013, and Lyft's CEO John Zimmer is hosting a little celebration for drivers when some very unwelcome interlopers turn up to crash the party. Uber’s Travis Kalanick wants to destroy Lyft at any cost, and he's willing to do what it takes to outmaneuver his competitor and stea ... Show More
23m 6s
Sep 2023
ChatGPT Finds Its Voice While Amazon Invests Billions in AI Rival
Episode 155: Neal and Toby break down the biggest AI news at the top of the show, including; ChatGPT developing the ability to speak and analyze images, Amazon investing $4 billion into Anthropic and Spotify using OpenAI to release podcasts in alternate languages. Plus, how much ... Show More
27m 22s