Email unsubscribe service Unroll.me sold data to Uber

Unroll.me, a service that lets you easily unsubscribe from email newsletters and similar subscriptions has recently been under fire after it was revealed they sold email data to Uber. After The New York Times posted about Uber's pattern of risk-taking, The Intercept followed up with this aptly titled article expressing the sentiments of many users and privacy concerned individuals.

CEO and co-founder Jojo Hedaya has issued a public apology for not being transparent enough about how data would be used. As seen in comments though, the apology post itself seems to have frustrated others on the basis that there's no apology for the sale of the data.

On the positive side of things, the issue has sparked the release of a totally safe, open-source solution called Gmail Unsubscribe . It's a Google Script that provides the same functionality but without revealing your precious email content to third parties. On the other hand, there are already browser extensions like Mailvelope to help you maintain email privacy. And on a much larger scale, there are email services built around privacy, Proton Mail being a shining example.

As for Uber , the company has received no end of negative press lately. In this particular case, they reportedly used Unroll.me data to gain insight through receipts from customers of rival ride-sharing company Lyft . This rash of negative press may very well work to Lyft's advantage.