PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Uber Bans Driver For Live Streaming Passengers on Twitch

An Uber driver in the St. Louis area was live streaming his passengers without telling them as a form of entertainment to his audience on Twitch. However, both Uber and Lyft have booted the driver from their ride-hailing services.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Our Expert
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS HOW WE TEST
65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

Uber has permanently banned a driver for his creepy practice of live streaming footage of his passengers without their consent.

Hundreds of Uber and Lyft rides in the St. Louis area were recorded by the driver, Jason Gargac, over the video platform Twitch as a form of entertainment to his online audience. However, almost none of the passengers were told they were being filmed, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which reported on Gargac's Twitch channel last week.

On Monday, Uber told PCMag: "The troubling behavior in the videos is not in line with our user terms and Community Guidelines. We have ended our partnership with this driver."

Lyft has also "deactivated" Gargac's driver status. "The safety and comfort of the Lyft community is our top priority," it said.

According to the Dispatch, Gargac filmed plenty of embarrassing footage no one would want made public. The videos included passengers kissing, throwing up, and talking trash about friends and relatives. In some cases, full names were revealed, along with people's homes. However, Gargac rarely told his passengers he was live streaming.

On top of all this, viewers on his Twitch channel routinely made sexual comments about his passengers and mocked them.

Gargac also told the Dispatch he wasn't breaking the law, and pointed to Missouri's one-party consent rule on electronic communications. Nevertheless, the companies enabling his live streaming decided to intervene. His Twitch channel is no longer hosting any videos and has been suspended.

The incident is stirring up debate over video cameras inside ride-hailing car services. Uber, for instance, does permit drivers to use dash cameras, but only for the purposes of safety. However, a company spokesman said it plans on clarifying its policies around video cam footage soon.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

Read full bio