fralcole

Got this email from Uber and thought it was a scam, but upon looking into it it seems legit. I replied, have set up my Surfair account, and am all set on a roundtrip flight from SF (likely using OAK) to SBA in September. Total cost = $0.

The whole thing is really strange, and it's been a full day with no press anywhere. I assume very few people were targeted for this, but still...pretty strange.

As a point of reference, I do use Uber quite a bit in SF and have about 5 times in the last year in LA.

Original Email below.
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SL - A free round-trip flight? Sure.
Body - Fly smarter with a complimentary round-trip on Surf Air

Rather than navigating the summertime travel gridlock, you could fly hassle-free, and for free, with Surf Air – the world's first all-you-can-fly membership airline.

As a premium rider, you’re invited to enjoy a complimentary round-trip within their California network, with up to 90 daily scheduled flights to choose from to cities like LA, the Bay Area, Santa Barbara, Truckee, Napa, Monterey, and more.

Ready to jet? Head to the special Surf Air website below, enter your info, and redeem your free flight.

BOOK MY FLIGHT

Riding in style comes with its perks.
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fralcole

Also, I emailed Surfair after booking everything to ask about why I was chosen for the promotion. Their response below:
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That's a great question! We found who the top Uber riders are that use the service in both LA & SF a handful of times in any given month and you were on the list. Do you travel between the two often?

Either way, looking forward to flying you!
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Kagehitokiri

so uber is selling rider information...

they have partnered together at least twice before >

surfair.com/us/campaigns/uber-landing/

uber-codes.com/2016/03/23/uber-tahoe-promo-surf-air-ride-uber-select-san-francisco-california/

cdn.surfair.com/app/uploads/2016/05/UBER-Palm-Springs-Partnership-11.3.2015.pdf

sbm12

Of course it is. Most big companies with that volume of data do in one form or another.

Kagehitokiri

any press coverage? in their fine print? i wonder at what point people might care.

i would never use uberx, but i would have used uber black/taxi. not anymore.

fralcole

To clarify, this email came from Uber, not Surfair. They linked out to Surfair's website, sure, but this isn't an issue with selling non-anonymized data. You could decide if you wanted to provide Surfair with identifiable information.

Kagehitokiri

i was referring to this >

"We [Surfair] found who"
"you were on the list"
for pretty specific data

fralcole

That's just what the Surfair employee said (likely what she was told). I'd bet on Surfair paying Uber to reach out to their "top riders" in SF & LA, on their behalf, and then those who agreed were sent to Surfair's website. I'm fairly confident Surfair saw no user information - beyond, perhaps, hard numbers of emails sent - until the user themselves filled out the application on Surfair's site.

I work at a mobile app who sells anonymized data in one form or the other and we'd never be able to find a partner who would do it any other way, nor would we ever do it any other way ourselves.