Oh, I don't mind, personally, and I agree with you. I also think security on these apps is done by the dissuasive power of knowing that you are live-tracked and almost certain to be caught, rather than any pre filtering (which is the taxi industry's MO); this is a feature.

This is what Uber checks for in California: https://newsroom.uber.com/details-on-safety/

Basically any lifetime sex offense, or terrorist register; and anything violent, or DUIs in the last 7 years.

Both of my drivers would not have passed the last 7 years bit (from what I deduced from our conversation) so the standards are clearly different abroad.