Facebook has added 49 positions to its careers page including a number of positions on Parse, which it acquired late last April. Parse is a cloud-based platform providing tools for app developers.

When Facebook purchased it, the social network bought the company outright, meaning that it would continue operating its service. It looks primed to build upon the company’s offerings and building at a larger capacity.

New listings added to Facebook’s careers page:

• Developer Advocate, Parse (Menlo Park)
• Site Reliability Engineer, Parse (Menlo Park)
• Software Engineer (Platform), Parse (Menlo Park)
• Software Engineer (Web), Parse (Menlo Park)
• Global Head, Developer Support Engineering (Menlo Park)
• Manager, Consumer Communications (Los Angeles – Menlo Park – New York)
• Manager, Internal Communications (Menlo Park)
• Finance Manager – Data Center Infrastructure (Menlo Park)
• Payroll Lead (Menlo Park)
• Procurement Operations Buyer (Menlo Park)
• Sales Operations Analyst (Contractor) (Singapore)
• Tax Manager (Menlo Park)
• Partner Manager Japan, Preferred Marketing Developer Program (Tokyo)
• Project Manager, Product Support (Menlo Park)
• Data Steward (Menlo Park)
• Trust and Safety Manager, Security – Latin America (Miami)
• Product Designer, Parse (Menlo Park)
• Associate, Partnerships Operations (Menlo Park)
• Content Manager, User Operations (Menlo Park)
• Project Manager, Product Support (Menlo Park)
• Video Producer, Creative Solutions (New York)
• Director, Business Development (Menlo Park)
• Integration Manager, Corporate Development (Menlo Park)
• Strategic Partner Development – TV (Los Angeles)
• Strategic Partner Development, Influencers (MPK) (Menlo Park)
• Strategic Partner Development, Public Partnerships (Los Angeles – Menlo Park)
• Global Accounts Measurement Lead – APAC (Singapore)
• Inside Sales Representative / Account Executive, Parse (Menlo Park)
• Strategic Partner Manager Games (Singapore)
• Small Business Specialist (Thai, Korean or Japanese speaking) (Singapore)
• SMB Analyst, Italian (Dublin)
• Team Lead ,SMB (Dublin)
• Client Partner, Finland (Stockholm)
• Account Manager – Retail (São Paulo)
• Client Partner – Travel (São Paulo)
• Client Partner – Technology & Entertainment, Global Marketing Solutions (Sydney)
• Client Partner, SEA (Singapore)
• Client Partner, Agency (New York)
• Client Partner, Atlas (Menlo Park)
• Performance (Direct Response) Sales Consultant (Menlo Park)
• Head of Technical Account Management (Seattle)
• Sales Operations Analyst (Contractor) (Singapore)
• Data Steward (Menlo Park)
• Advertising Technical Support Engineer (Seattle)
• Audience Researcher, Vertical Measurement – CPG (London)
• Global Accounts Measurement Lead – APAC (Singapore)
• Data Analyst, Latin America (São Paulo)

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

In response to Facebook has shared an explanation of how it defines hate speech and harmful content, as well as its plans to address the issues of cruel and insensitive content on the site, following challenges from Women, Action and The Media, the Everyday Sexism Project and a number of activists and organizations calling on the social network to take action against groups, pages and images that condone or encourage rape or domestic violence.

In a note on the Facebook Safety page, Facebook explained that it prohibits content that is “directly harmful,” but it allows content that may be “offensive or controversial.” The company defines harmful content as “anything organizing real world violence, theft, or property destruction, or that directly inflicts emotional distress on a specific private individual (e.g. bullying).” Facebook also prohibits “hate speech,” which it defines as “direct and serious attacks on any protected category of people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or disease.”

Facebook says it tries to remove this type of content as soon as possible, but other offensive and distasteful content might not qualify for removal. Still, the company acknowledged:

“In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate. In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want.  In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria.”

An open letter to Facebook pointed to pages such as Fly Kicking Sluts in the Uterus, Kicking your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she won’t make you a Sandwich, Violently Raping Your Friend Just for Laughs, Raping your Girlfriend and others as examples of the type of anti-women pages that exist on the site, while pictures of women breastfeeding, women post-mastectomy and artistic representations of women’s bodies are often flagged and removed. The letter asked Facebook to recognize speech that trivializes or glorifies violence against women as hate speech and to train moderators to remove it. The organizations even called for advertisers to boycott Facebook if their ads appear next to these pages.

In response, Facebook says it will review and update the guidelines that its user operations team uses to evaluate reports of hate speech. It will work with legal experts and the women’s coalition to review and update its training for the team. The social network says it is looking at ways to increase the accountability of users who share controversial content that might not qualify for removal but may be offensive to others. The company also pledged to establish better lines of communication with women’s groups and encourage the Anti-Defamation League’s Anti-Cyberhate to include representatives from the women’s coalition.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

People are still getting used to the idea of services like Airbnb, which connect guests who wish to stay in new places with hosts who have accommodations to share. But as a peer-to-peer marketplace for people’s homes, Airbnb’s success still relies on ensuring that its users trust one another. Today, it took another step toward that goal, with the introduction of Verified Identification, which will connect users’ online and offline identities.

Airbnb has undertaken a number of initiatives over the past few years to build its users’ trust and ensure their safety. The marketplace has a ratings system which is designed to allow both guests and hosts to provide feedback on their stay. It also allows them to act as references for one another, especially helpful for first-time users. And Airbnb has implemented a $1 million guarantee for hosts, as well as a secure payment structure and 24/7 customer service.

The company is now seeking to take all that a step further, with a new feature that will link users’ online identities to their real offline identities. Previously, users could authenticate with the system by connecting their Facebook or LinkedIn identity with their Airbnb accounts. But the new Verified Identity system will tie a user’s account to his or her offline identity.

To do so, users simply go to www.airbnb.com/verify and login. The system will prompt users then to verify their offline identity in one of two ways: either by scanning a photo ID or passport with their webcam or mobile phone, or by answering the same sort of historical information you’d be prompted with when doing a credit check. For the system to work, both the online and offline accounts need to match.

The Verified Identity feature will first launch in the U.S., and users here can begin to opt-in and verify themselves today. Hosts will also be able to require users to be verified before they book a room. But if hosts set that requirement, they themselves also must go through the new verification system. That’s one way Airbnb is trying to drive adoption.

Another way that Airbnb will get people to sign up is by requiring that 25 percent of all users will need to get verified before they’re able to book a reservation. That 25 percent will be chosen randomly, and once a user is verified, he or she will never have to go through the process again.

In the short term, requiring a percentage of users to verify their offline identity will add a small bit of friction to the booking process, and could result in users dropping off before completing a booking. If a user is asked to verify his or her account, either because a host has required it or they’re part of the lucky 25 percent, then they’ll have 12 hours to do so without losing the reservation.

It’s important to note that, at least for now, that 25 percent is only required for U.S. users. Airbnb has said in the past that about 75 percent of all bookings have some international component — that is, either the place being booked is outside the U.S. or the guest is not a U.S. resident. Over time, Airbnb plans to increase the percentage of bookings which will require a identity verification. And it also plans to make it required outside the U.S. at some point.

Airbnb believes that the Verified Identity system will not only help provide more trust between guests and hosts, but that it can also help build more community. “The more info you can provide to each other, the better the Airnb experience,” Airbnb communications manager Jakob Kerr told me. “Someday we might get to point where you’re not staying with a stranger.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook video ad units could come with TV price tags – Facebook is reportedly prepping to sell its new video ads with an “upfront”-type marketplace and TV-like prices. According to AdAge, Facebook will have four daily summer slots — women over 30, women under 30, men over 30 and men over 30 — with an asking price close to $1 million. The exact ad format hasn’t been locked down, but it is believed that the videos will be 15-seconds long and users will see no more than three per day at launch. It is unclear whether the ads will autoplay in the feed or not.

More Messenger for Android users get free calling - Facebook this week released an update for its Messenger app on Android, bringing free VoiP calling to users in the U.S. and 23 other countries. Previously, this was in testing with Android users in Canada and iOS users in several countries. From Messenger, users can tap the “i” button inside a conversation and then select “Free Call.”

Facebook simplifies logo – Facebook has updated the look of its “f” logo, eliminating the light blue horizontal line, which was in the previous version. A comparison is available here on the site of developer Tom Waddington, who first noticed the change. The company also created new logos for several of its Facebook pages, such as those for security, privacy, government, journalists, universities and others. The one for safety, for example, accompanies the roundup item below.

Facebook and Attorneys General launch online safety campaign- Facebook and the National Association of Attorneys General are partnering to educate teens and their parents about safety and privacy on the social network. Part of the consumer education program includes a ”Safety and Privacy on Facebook” page, which will be a resource for information and tips on privacy settings and “Ask the Safety Team” videos.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

If terrorism requires an audience, then the recent mainstream adoption of social media may be giving violent actors a bigger stage than ever before. There are many reasons people lash out at the world, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that becoming the center of the attention could be a factor pushing some to commit atrocities. Our retweets could be delivering their messages of fear.

This is not to say social media infamy is the cause of any of the recent tragedies in Boston, or Sandy Hook, or anywhere else. I have no knowledge of the motives of the suspects in those cases. But watching the world feverishly tweet and Facebook post about the manhunt unfolding in Watertown last night frightened me. I couldn’t help but wonder if other angry, disturbed, or mentally ill individuals might be watching too and craving that same notoriety. I shuddered to think of a future where a terrorist in hiding laughs as they see their actions trigger millions of mentions.

Some believe that social media’s role is no different than that of traditional media years ago — that terrorists and killers in the 1920s would have just been just as attracted to becoming a newspaper headline as the subject of a sea of tweets. I disagree. Those old outlets were broadcast mediums, they weren’t participatory. Listening to reports of catastrophe on the radio and discussing them with people nearby doesn’t internalize the fear the same way as personally re-sharing and reacting to them in a real-time global forum. Social media instills emotions deeper.

According to Max Abrahms, PhD, a counter-terrorism research fellow at Johns Hopkins and author of “What Terrorists Really Want” from the International Security journal, ”One thing counter-terrorism researchers want to know is what is the motive of the terrorist. They want to know that because they want to deprive terrorism of any utility. If we could remove the value of committing terrorism they wouldn’t do it.” He tells me, “One of the main goals of terrorists is to get attention. By it’s very definition, terrorism requires an audience, so it’s no surprise the advent of terrorism came alongside the growth of mass media in the 1880s. Social media today no doubt spreads the message of terrorists even quicker and to more people.”

We’ve already seen perpetrators make use of social media to promote their point of view, like Christopher Dorner who was caught in an extended manhunt after killing several police officers in February. He may have wanted the manifesto he posted to Facebook accusing police of corruption to be widely shared. And we shared it. His message hit closer to home because it was our friends distributing it, rather than a newspaper like the letters from the Zodiac Killer.

If killing sprees are a cry for attention or help or an attempt to show the world someone’s pain, then our fixation on tragedy, our willingness to pause our lives and spread the news bit by bit could be playing into their hands.

In fact, when video footage of Osama Bin Laden in his compound was recovered, Abrahms says one of the most striking things we found was that Osama was sitting on his sofa watching himself on television. It suggests terrorists do derive utility from knowing millions of people are paying attention to them.

Our real-time updates can even have real negative consequences for the safety of those involved in pursuits of criminals. In February during the Dorner manhunt, the San Bernardino District Attorney tweeted that “The sheriff has asked all members of the press to stop tweeting immediately. It is hindering officer safety. And last night, the Boston Police Department discouraged people from posting what they heard on police scanners:

#MediaAlert: WARNING: Do Not Compromise Officer Safety by Broadcasting Tactical Positions of Homes Being Searched.—
Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 19, 2013

UPDATE: Boston Police are asking social media users not to post information they hear on police frequencies/scanner channels.—
CBS News (@CBSNews) April 19, 2013

But does this kind of attention inspire violence? When I asked Abrahms who studied at Oxford and has spoken on Al Jezeera, he explained “In a sense, yes. Ideally we would completely ignore terrorism.” That’s not to say discussion is bad, and Abrahms notes social media’s potential to surface evidence in investigations. Still, propagating the fear and grief caused by acts of violence has the potential to satisfy those who commit them.

This isn’t a call for guilt, or even abrupt change, but for mindfulness. When the Internet crowds around tragedy, do we think about the impact of feverishly sharing the latest gruesome details? There is a difference between distributing actionable news and trumpeting fear, and being aware of that difference is critical now that we each have our own audience.

Abrahms concludes, and I agree, “if people are sharing news stories they find intellectually interesting, there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is if people internalize it and come to overestimate the chance of they themselves being victim of a terrorist attack. You don’t want society to overreact.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Alert.Us, a recently launched mobile family safety application, has some interesting ideas about the direction that these sorts of GPS tracking apps should go. In fact, says CEO Antoine Martin, the company’s goal is to have kids actually accept and recommend the app. That’s a bit different from the other parental control or safety apps on the market today which generally launch with the needs of parents, not their offspring, in mind. It’s also a fairly lofty goal, since kids don’t generally want to be tracked.

Currently, the app currently offers the usual round-up of family safety functions: a geo-fenced alerting function to let others know when someone has arrived at home or school, for example, as well as an emergency alert button which, when triggered, sends out a message to a pre-configured list including family, friends, neighbors, and anyone else who can rush in to respond.

Though these types of “emergency” alerting functions haven’t yet been seen to thwart any serious crimes – like kidnappings, for instance, families can still take advantage of the functionality for more common incidents, like a kid who falls off his bike or the little brother calling on his older brother for help with bullies, maybe.

Some of these ideas have been tried before, through apps like Life360, iHound, Norton Safety Minder, React Mobile, Rapid protect, and others. But Alert.Us also offers a few extra tools not all the apps have, including a family message board for the everyday missives between family members (can you get the milk?) – something which would somewhat compete with other startups like Tango or newly launched Hubble.

Alert.Us offers a battery monitoring function, too, which is one of its smarter features at launch. When a child’s battery is empty, the app alerts the parents. It’s such a simple idea, but it goes a long way to help parents to avoid the panic they encounter when a child doesn’t answer their phone. (It also helps with the kids who claim “oh, my battery was dead,” when it wasn’t. Gotcha.)

But back to the problem of getting kids to actually like the app? Martin tells us that will be the focus in the months ahead, and hints at plans to head into the Quantified Self space to add value on top of basic GPS tracking.

Alert.Us quietly launched two months ago, but the company hasn’t done much outreach or marketing. The cross-platform application has already added over 25,000 users (70 percent on iPhone) during that time, and now finds that active parents open the app six times per day.

The Paris-based company had a launch partnership with e-commerce site vente-privee.com to drive initial downloads, and on the first day after launch, the app climbed to number three in the French App Store, and remained there for two days. It also spent a week at the top of the Lifestyle category, Martin adds.

Parents can use the app on a trial basis for up to 900 minutes and/or 3 alerts, then it’s $6.99 per month ($64.99 per year) afterwards. To date, the app has converted 100 of its early adopters into paying customers, out of the 10 percent of the user base which has reached the end of the trial period.

Alert.Us is backed by $500,000 in angel funding, from an undisclosed group that include four “super angel moms.”

The app is available here in the Apple App Store, on Google Play, or for BlackBerry.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

If you were one of the people who signed up last year at Google’s I/O conference to be a part of the “Glass Explorer” program, you might be getting your instructions on how to actually…purchase the thing and get it into your geeky little hands.

In case you weren’t sure, Google Glass is real, and they’re shipping as we speak.

Today, my number was called and I received the following email, which comes along with a phone number to call, a unique code and a link to a “Glass Safety Notices and Terms of Sale” that you must accept before you place your order:

Google said in its previous email to Glass Explorers that 2,000 were pre-ordered, and I was number 933. That means that the company is filling out requests for units pretty quickly, if they’re going in order. Sure, some people might not follow through once they actually face dropping over $1,500 for them, but it’s safe to venture a guess that most will opt to purchase them.

When you call the number, which I’ve blanked out from the email, you’re asked for your unique code. The process is pretty quick and you can decide on whether you’d like to pick your Glass up or have it shipped to you. Sadly, the tangerine and sky colors were already out of stock, so I opted to pick up the “shale” flavor of grey.

I set up an appointment to pick them up in Mountain View tomorrow. I’m told that if you pick them up in person, in either Mountain View, New York or Los Angeles, you’ll meet with a member of the Glass team to have them fitted properly and then get a basic walk-through of the device and operating system. You’re also encouraged to “bring a friend.”

The person on the phone was extremely nice, congratulating me on getting the device along the way. After all, to try these things out, and be on the cutting edge of technology, you’re dropping some serious cash.

Since the Glass Mirror API developer guide documentation is out, along with the API itself, more developers will start creating applications on top of the Glass platform once they get their hands on them. It certainly doesn’t hurt that some of the biggests VCs in Silicon Valley are lining up to fund these projects, too. I’m personally looking forward to creating a recipe application that will let me flip through ingredients and directions, hands-free, while I cook. Amazing, huh?

Plenty of questions remain about Google Glass, especially as to whether mainstream consumers will actually want them, how often people will actually wear them and how awkward things will be when you’re sitting across the table from someone who has a camera connected to the Internet in front of their eyeball. Having said that, Glass has gotten people excited, and you’re going to start seeing at least 2,000 more of them in the wild very soon.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

In the coming weeks, the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission is expected to enter into its first trial of taxi e-hail apps. That’ll allow startups like Hailo that help users find nearby cabs through their mobile phones, without having to hail them from the street. At the same time, competition is coming from services like SideCar, which enables passengers to find rides from community drivers.

All these changes will have a significant impact not just on consumers — who will soon have more choices than ever — but on the entire urban transportation industry. There’s the question of how regulators view the safety of mobile, on-demand transportation services, particularly those which provide rides from drivers without commercial licenses. There’s also the difficult balance between regulation and innovation, particularly as the taxi industry seeks to compete with the convenience provided by technology startups like Uber?

At Disrupt NY 2013, I’ll be talking about some of the companies involved in this transition, as well as the local regulatory agency which oversees them, to discuss how these apps will reshape the way we think about getting around cities like New York.

I’ll be joined by NY TLC Deputy Commissioner Ashwini Chhabra, who will present the side of the regulators in this debate. Over the last year, he’s been working with local taxi companies, tech startups, and technology providers, to make supporting e-hail applications a reality in the city.

We’ll also have Jay Bregman, CEO of taxi e-hail startup Hailo. Already operating a wildly popular service in the U.K., Hailo will be one of the first apps to take advantage of the TLC’s new e-hail rules. Prior to founding Hailo, Bregman was the founder and CTO of eCourier.co.uk, a company which used GPS for an intelligent dispatch system.

And rounding out our panel will be Sunil Paul, CEO of ride-sharing startup SideCar. After a successful run in San Francisco, SideCar is aggressively expanding into other markets, including Brooklyn, N.Y. Prior to founding SideCar, this tech veteran had co-founded companies like FreeLoader and anti-spam leader Brightmail, and has also been an investor in a number of cleanweb technologies and startups.

Jay Bregman
Founder & CEO, Hailo

Jay Bregman is the Founder / CEO of Hailo – a network that matches passengers and licensed taxi drivers using a tool which helps to make cabbies’ days more sociable – and profitable. Hailo has raised $50M in investment from an all-star cast of investors including Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, Atomico Ventures, Richard Branson and KDDI. Together they’ve funded Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Tumblr, founded Skype, and brought loads of other fanatistic companies to life all over the world.

Previously Jay founded eCourier.co.uk which was voted London’s most inspirational business by the Evening Standard in 2007. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Jay was named on the Times’ 100 People to Watch in 2012.

He now lives in New York City managing Hailo’s North American expansion.

Sunil Paul
CEO, Side.Cr

Sunil Paul is co-founder and CEO of rideshare community SideCar. SideCar has operations in San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Austin, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Brooklyn, NY. Sunil coined the term “cleanweb” to describe the aggressive application of social, mobile, and Internet media to accelerate cleantech deployment and restructure sectors as diverse as hotels, automobiles, agriculture and food, clothing, buildings, lighting and renewable finance. SideCar is a realization of Sunil’s cleanweb vision.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook is looking for a Public Content Partnerships Analyst, which could be related to a new push for more public content from users and popular figures.

The job description says, “The Public Content Partnerships team is looking for a business and data analyst with a passion for media, popular culture and social technology to help drive informed business decisions for Facebook.” Responsibilities include, “Apply your expertise in quantitative analysis, data mining, and the presentation of data to communicate how our partners engage with our product.” An ”understanding of public figure use of social media” is  a preferred requirement.

Facebook added a subscribe — now called “follow” — option in September 2011, and there have been reports that Facebook could introduce hashtags into its service as well. The company has recently added a number of job listings related to strategic partner development, such as roles focused on entertainment companies and public figures in Brazil and Asia, as well as musicians and athletes in the U.S. Facebook also seems to have hired a data editor to help visualize and share “the many exciting ways people are using Facebook and connecting with others during global events, holidays and other significant moments in time,” according to a job post added in March and removed last week.

Another new job this week is for Mobile Partnerships, Head of North American Operator Partnerships. This is likely to build more relationships like the one Facebook has with HTC and AT&T, which resulted in the launch of the HTC First with Facebook Home today.

Facebook added 29 other new positions to its careers page this week, including a number of openings on the creative solutions, UX research and other teams.

• Cluster Operations Engineer (Menlo Park)
• Manager, Corporate Communications (Toronto)
• Product Specialist, User Operations (Palo Alto – Menlo Park)
• Business Sourcer (Menlo Park)
• Recruiting Program Manager – Mergers and Acquisitions (Menlo Park)
• Sourcer, Diversity – NYC (New York)
• Quantitative UX Researcher (Menlo Park)
• UX Research Tools Engineer (Menlo Park)
• UX Researcher (Menlo Park)
• Environmental Health and Safety Engineer (Menlo Park)
• Logistics Program Manager, Asset Management (Menlo Park)
• Sustainability Data Analyst (Menlo Park)
• Network Engineer, Operations (Dublin)
• Manager, Production Engineering (Menlo Park)
• Brand Strategist, Creative Solutions (New York)
• Brand Strategist, Creative Solutions (Chicago)
• Brand Strategist, Creative Solutions (Menlo Park)
• Creative Strategist, Creative Solutions (LA) (Los Angeles)
• Creative Strategist, Creative Solutions (Toronto)
• Creative Strategist ( Paris) (Paris)
• Creative Strategist – Global Creative Solutions (Sydney)
• Creative Strategist (Singapore)
• Mobile Partnerships, Head of North American Operator Partnerships (Menlo Park)
• Media Solutions, Swedish (Dublin)
• Account Specialist (Singapore), Strategic Client Services (Singapore)
• Associate Account Manager (Contract) (Singapore) (Singapore)
• Client Partner Mexico (Mexico City)
• Team Assistant (half time – contract) (Warsaw)
• Client Partner, Travel (Menlo Park)
• Lead, Global Marketing Solutions – CPG (Menlo Park)
• Public Content Partnerships Analyst (Menlo Park)

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Uber is unsafe. Lyft, SideCar, and other ride-sharing services are unsafe. At the very least, there is the question of their safety for passengers. And why? Because they represent a new type of technology, a new way of doing things, and that is inherently scary.

Never mind that it’s more difficult to commit a crime using these new transportation services than it would be for a regular old taxi or gypsy cab driver. And never mind that these fears are being stirred up be the emergence of a single allegation over the past six months of one individual acting badly. Never mind all that, because a few people are apparently freaking out over the potential for new ride-sharing services to enable widespread criminal activity.

These fears are being driven by the resurfacing of a single case in Washington, D.C., where one of Uber’s drivers was accused of sexually assaulting a customer after driving her home. The allegation, which first came to light back in December, resulted in a driver contracted by one of Uber’s partners being arrested on Thursday. But he was soon after released without being charged.

And as a result, Uber itself has been accused of “letting the issue of safety slip.” The problem is, the company typically partners with third-party limo and taxi services to pre-vet drivers, doing background checks and ensuring that they have all the necessary licenses or permits. City to city, Uber drivers are required to abide by whatever local regulations are in their jurisdiction. If driving for UberBLACK, that means having whatever license or permit is required to operate a livery vehicle. If it’s UberTAXI, drivers need a local medallion to operate. Only in San Francisco — and last week, in Austin — does Uber operate a so-called “ride-sharing service,” where drivers don’t have those types of licenses or permits.

And that’s where things start to get tricky, when making the argument that Uber is somehow delinquent in its hiring practices. For the most part, Uber and its partners follow the same regulations all the usual cab or limo services do. Which is to say, if Uber’s regulations are soft, so are those that are followed by every other taxi or limo service out there.

Do a quick search on Google or Google News for “cab driver rape” and you’ll find no shortage of articles detailing such cases. What stands out about the news stories in those links is the unfortunate and sad truth that sexual assaults by taxi drivers are not as unusual as they should be.

But Uber’s got something that regular taxi or limo services don’t have. So do SideCar and Lyft. They have an identity system that connects a driver to a ride. They have rating systems to help determine which drivers are doing a good job, and which aren’t. They have feedback systems through which unhappy passengers can report something that went wrong. And, in the case of a crime, they have time, date, and ride logs so they can quickly identify perpetrators. Which means, if you were a criminal and somehow got through the pre-vetting process for any of these new services, you’d have to be an absolute idiot to commit a crime while on the job.

Hopefully, if you’re the type to try out new things, and you’re not scared by the idea of using technology to make your life better, that will provide some comfort to you.

Disclosure: TechCrunch founder and current columnist Michael Arrington is a general partner at CrunchFund, which is an investor in Uber.

Photo Credit: davidsonscott15 via Compfight cc

Article courtesy of TechCrunch