(MENAFN - The Conversation) Uber' buine model i incredibly imple: It' a platform that facilitate exchange between people. And Uber' been incredibly ucceful at it, almot eliminating the tranaction cot of doing buine in everything from huttling people around town to delivering food.

Thi i one of the reaon Uber i now among the mot valuable companie in the world after it hare began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10.

Yet it US$82.4 billion market capitalization may pale in comparion to the wealth of uer data it' accumulating . If you ue Uber or perhap even if you don't it know a treaure trove of data about you, including your location, gender, pending hitory, contact, phone battery level and even whether you're on the way home from a one-night tand . It may oon know whether you're drunk or not.

While that' cary enough, combine all that data with Uber' expertie at analyzing it through the len of behavioral cience and you have a dangerou potential to exploit uer for profit.

Uber' hardly alone. Our reearch how the bigget digital platform Airbnb, Facebook, eBay and other are collecting o much data on how we live, that they already have the capability to manipulate their uer on a grand cale. They can predict behavior and influence our deciion on where to click, hare and pend.

While mot platform aren't uing all thee capabilitie yet, manipulation through behavioral pychology technique can occur quietly and leave little trace. If we don't etablih rule of the road now, it'll be much harder to detect and top later.

A platform can be any pace that facilitate tranaction between buyer and eller. Traditional example include flea market and trading floor.

A digital platform erve the ame purpoe but give the owner the ability to 'mediate' it uer while they're uing it and often when they're not. By that we mean it can oberve and learn an incredible amount of information about uer behavior in order to perfect what behavioral cientit call ' choice architecture ,' inconpicuou deign element intended to influence human behavior through how deciion are preented.

For example, Uber ha experimented with it driver to determine the mot effective trategie for keeping them on the road a long a poible. Thee trategie include playing into cognitive biae uch a lo averion and overetimating low probability event, even if a driver i barely earning enough money to make it worth her while. Driver end up like gambler at a caino, urged to play jut a little longer depite the odd.

Uber didn't immediately repond to a requet for comment.

Airbnb alo experiment with it uer. It ha ued behavioral cience to get hot to lower their rate and accept booking without creening guet which create real rik for hot, particularly when they are haring their own apartment.

While thee example eem relatively benign, they demontrate how digital platform are able to quietly deign ytem to direct uer' action in potentially manipulative way.

And a platform grow, they only become better choice architect. With it IPO' huge influx of invetor money to fund more data and behavioral cience , Uber could move into dangerouly unethical territory eay to imagine given it pat practice .

For example, if the app recognize that you are drunk or in a neighborhood you rarely travel to and one that it data how i high in crime it could charge you a higher rate, knowing you're unlikely to refue.

And it' not all peculation.

In an effort to deceive law enforcement trying to invetigate the company, Uber actually found a way to identify government regulator trying to ue it app and then prevented them from getting ride.

That' one reaon lawmaker and regulator have been dicuing the difficult, interrelated role of behavioral cience and tech for year . And ome companie, Uber in particular, have been invetigated for a hot of bad buine practice, from dicrimination to miuing uer data .

But mot of the manipulation we've identified and worry about i not exprely illegal. And becaue regulator are often unable to keep pace with the ever-evolving ue of technology and choice architecture, that' likely to remain o.

Given the abence of well-defined and enforceable legal guardrail, platform companie' propenity to exploit behavioral cience at uer' expene will remain largely unchecked.

One olution, in our view, i etablihing an ethical code for platform companie to follow. And if they don't adopt it willingly, invetor, employee and uer could demand it.

Since the mid-20th century, written code of ethical conduct have been a taple of U.S. companie. The legal and medical profeion have relied on them for millennia . And reearch ugget they are effective at encouraging ethical behavior at companie.

We reviewed hundred of ethical code, including one targeted at tech and computing companie. Baed on our reearch, we urge digital platform to adopt five ethical guideline:

All choice architecture employed on a platform hould be fully tranparent. Platform hould dicloe when they are uing the tool of behavioral cience to influence uer behavior

Uer hould be able to make choice on the platform freely and eaily, and choice architect hould limit behavioral intervention to reminder or prompt that are the leat harmful to uer autonomy

Platform hould avoid 'nudging' uer in way that exploit unconciou and irrational deciion making baed on impule and emotion. New reearch how that tranparent choice architecture can work jut a well

Platform hould recognize the power they poe and take care not to exploit the market they've created, including by abuing information aymmetrie between themelve and uer or oppoing reaonable regulation

Platform hould avoid uing choice architecture that dicourage uer from acting in their own bet interet. A Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economit Richard Thaler put it , we hould only 'nudge for good.'

Big tech and behavioral cience are now integrated in way that are making companie wildly ucceful, from buzzing toothbruhe that make cleaning your teeth eem rewarding to uing text to nudge poorer mother to ue health care .

While the reult can ignificantly enhance our live, it alo make it eaier than ever for companie to manipulate uer to enhance their bottom line.

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