Shafted by bosses, disdained by punters, loved by hackers – yes, it's freelance workers

Gig economy workers – the fancy new way to describe short-term freelance serfs like Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders – are well in the sights of hackers. That's because they're surprisingly easy to phish. There's no corporate network to protect them. They usually sign up to a task-scheduling app using their personal email …

[Natalie Gritpants]

If I ever find myself tied to a gig-economy app

I will buy a cheap phone for it to live on. It may not even need a SIM card.

[sabroni]

Re: If I ever find myself tied to a gig-economy app

Does that help? If they have access to your bank account to pay you then the phishers have a chance of getting at it too. You need a burner bank account, not a burner phone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: If I ever find myself tied to a gig-economy app

and certainly a separate email address that is only used for the app, to make phishing easier to spot

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile, at Lyft and Uber

....the companies dream of the day they can get rid of these expensive security issues.

The sooner the meat bags have gone, the sooner their shares go through the roof.

[Anonymous Coward]

One day...

... we we all work like this.

[Anonymous Coward]

What?

“We should ask why these services are so cheap and what do we get for paying less. We can think about how we enable systems that are exploitative.”

How is 10% of total fee for a job cheap? (guru.com) .. if i charge $2000 for job what exactly did i get get for my $200? If there is a problem that requires arbitration it is an extra fee...

They charge as much as they can and charging more or less is not connected with their attitude to security.

[John Smith 19]

"“We should ask why these services are so cheap and what do we get for paying less. "

As someone observed a long time ago "It's complimentary. It's not free (or cheap)"

Someone is paying for your convenience.

If you're bi**ching about all that spam you have to weed out of your in box....

Where do you think it's coming from ?

[Hstubbe]

At some point these gig workers will figure out neither the company nor the customers give a shit about them, and may return the favour. Maybe make an extra buck signaling to their local burglar association when one of their customers left the house or something like that. Karma will find its way eventually.