Uber driver 'live streamed passengers kissing and being sick'
Jason Gargac has given about 700 rides since March and most were broadcast聽to his channel on the live video website Twitch.
Tuesday 24 July 2018 17:48, UK
A driver for Uber and Lyft has been suspended after he reportedly recorded hundreds of passengers without their permission and live streamed videos of the journeys.
Jason Gargac, of Florissant, Missouri, has given about 700 rides since March and most were broadcast to his channel on the live video website Twitch, it is believed.
Passengers' full names and addresses and private conversations, including complaints about relatives and bosses, were sometimes revealed.
Intimate moments were also apparently shared where people in his car kissed.
Some users were even filmed throwing up during the rides.
Among the unwitting passengers were children, drunk students and public figures including Jerry Cantrell, guitarist in the band Alice in Chains, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Meanwhile, people watching the videos would comment on the passengers' appearances and conversations.
Mr Gargac has done nothing illegal because Missouri is a "one-party consent" state, where only one participant in a conversation needs to be aware a recording is happening for it to be legal.
However, his behaviour raised ethical questions about passenger privacy.
A recent posting showed two women aged in their 20s in Mr Gargac's black Chevrolet Silverado.
One commenter rated the women based on their looks. Another wrote: "This is creepy."
Mr Gargac, a 32-year-old army veteran, rarely admitted he was streaming live but a few passengers who noticed were told he was recording for safety reasons, the Post-Dispatch reported.
He said: "I try to capture the natural interactions between myself and the passengers - what a Lyft and Uber ride actually is."
But some riders told the newspaper their privacy had been violated and they did not know they were live streamed and would not have consented.
One female passenger told the Post-Dispatch: "We got in an Uber at 2am to be safe, and then I find out that because of that, everything I said in that car is online and people are watching me. It makes me sick."
Uber said it has ended its relationship with Mr Gargac. Lyft has deactivated the driver from its app.
It is not known if the police are investigating.