Unroll.me's shadiness is exactly why people don't trust tech companies

When The New York Times reported the popular inbox-cleaning app Unroll.me was providing anonymized user data to Uber as part of the ride-hailing company's bid to crush competition from Lyft, the backlash was swift.

Outraged users took to Twitter, bashing the company and pledging to delete the service. CEO Jojo Hedaya quickly apologized, but it did little to quell the outrage. Later, Unroll.me cofounder Perri Chase wrote an impassioned defense of Hedaya on Medium.

"Data is pretty much the only business model for email and Unroll.me is not the only company that looks at, collects and sells your data," Chase — who is no longer part of the company — wrote. "There was no intentional malice done by Jojo or anyone at Unroll.me." Read more...