A gig platform occupies a deliberately uncomfortable legal position: it directs work minutely through software while insisting it employs nobody. This article explains why classification is the question everything else hangs on, how the two competing tests actually differ, and why the same driver can be an employee for one statute and a contractor for another in the same week. It explains deactivation — the industry's word for firing — and why a worker whose account disappears has no notice, no hearing, and frequently no human to appeal to. It covers the insurance gap that opens the moment an app is on but no ride is accepted, and why a personal auto policy will not respond. It covers what the pay screen does and does not show, the tip and fee practices that have produced enforcement, and the arbitration clause that converts a systemic claim into thousands of uneconomic ones. It closes with what a platform worker should do before a problem arises, and what a compliant platform actually builds.