Does your employer have a right to know where you are at any given moment? And, perhaps more important, should a company that works with "independent contractors" who aren't technically its employees have that same information?

At least one company seems to think the answer to that first question is "yes." That company has been sued by a former employee who was fired after she deleted a smartphone application that tracked her location all day, every day.

But at least that woman had a (presumably) steady paycheck and was employed outright by the company monitoring her movements. That isn't true for Uber drivers in China who were warned this week that their locations will be tracked.

Uber is said to have told its Chinese drivers not to visit protests in Hangzhou, a city in the Eastern part of the country, held by taxi drivers who reportedly think that competition between traditional services and ride-hailing startups is unfair.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Uber warned drivers in China that it would "use GPS to identify drivers that had refused to leave the location and cancel its contracts with them" in its warning against visiting areas with active protestors.

In what world does it make sense for a company that claims all its drivers are "independent contractors" who shouldn't be considered its employees have even the semblance of the right to monitor its drivers' location, no matter the reason?

Plus there's something funny about Uber telling Quartz that "We firmly oppose any form of gathering or protest, and we encourage a more rational form of communication for solving problems," given its staunchly libertarian bent.

Uber: Where some people are freer than others, and where the company will monitor the location of its "partners" to ensure they aren't engaging in any sort of political protest, even though it claims no responsibility for their actions.