Uber, Lyft suspend driver who recorded St. Louis passengers

ST. LOUIS -- Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft have suspended a driver who recorded hundreds of St. Louis-area passengers without their permission and livestreamed the video.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported 32-year-old Jason Gargac of Florissant, Missouri, has given about 700 rides in the area since March. Almost all have been streamed to his channel on the live video website Twitch, where he goes by the username "JustSmurf."

Gargac said he's trying to "capture the natural interactions between myself and the passengers."

But some riders said they felt their privacy had been violated. Of about a dozen the newspaper interviewed, all said they didn't know they were livestreamed and wouldn't have consented.

After the story's publication, Uber announced it was suspending Gargac's account and Lyft said it deactivated him as a driver.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

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