An Incomplete Map of Uberland: In its eagerness to make the case against Uber, a new book makes a pretty good case for Uber.

• Author: Doherty, Brian

ARIANA, A DOMINICAN mother of four in New York, says being an Uber driver is the best job she's ever had. "I love it," she enthuses to Alex Rosenblat, an ethnographer at the Data & Society Research Institute. "You can have your own schedule. You met many different people."

On the other hand, the ride-sharing company has been careless with its customers' personal data and made misleading income promises--claiming, for instance, that New York drivers were earning a median $90,000 a year--a practice that got the company slammed with a $20 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission.

The rhetoric in Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work, Rosenblat's interview-rich but analysis-thin book, is designed to make readers think concerns about privacy and corporate governance are more important than the increased work opportunities that Uber brings to the lives of people like Mariana. Rosenblat got direct insights from over 500 Uber drivers, through both formal interviews and informal conversations. She also logged lots of time on online message boards where hundreds of thousands of those drivers gather to communicate and kvetch. Needless to say, not everyone earns as much, or loves the experience as much, as Mariana does.

That immersion gave Rosenblat plenty of evidence that different people and different constituencies rate Uber differently. But while drivers have their legitimate complaints, we meet many who see the flexibility and the lack of supervision as far superior to the factory or call-center work they'd previously done; who value Uber's cashless nature for leaving them less open to armed robbery than a previous gig; who find other options for their level of education just nowhere near as satisfactory; or who deeply appreciate that they end up with money to spend by the end of every shift. We meet a single mom whose kids have chronic health problems requiring attention at unpredictable times as well as recent immigrants from war-torn lands speaking of how Uber has added value to their lives they could find nowhere else.

Rosenblat honestly presents such positive details, yet her book's dominant attitude toward the company is suspicious, carping, negative. The style and content of her discontent reveal a peevish but common disdain for innovations when they are based on privately chosen market transactions rather than the disinterested pursuit of social betterment.

DRIVERS RIGHTFULLY FIND many of Uber's practices annoying...