This Week in Tech Scandal
December 16, 2017 6:26 AM   Subscribe

Uber Engaged in ‘Illegal’ Spying on Rivals, Ex-Employee Says For years, Uber secretly spied on key executives, drivers and employees at rival ride-hailing companies as part of a larger intelligence-gathering operation that spanned multiple countries, according to a letter made public in a federal court on Friday. Uber security employees occasionally impersonated drivers to gain access to chat groups, illegally recorded phone calls, and secretly wiretapped and tailed executives at rival companies over the course of 2016, the letter said.

Uber has a history of "aggressive" tactics, leading to it facing at least five federal investigations:

Salle Yoo, the longtime legal chief who will soon leave the company, encouraged her staff to embrace Kalanick’s unique corporate temperament. “I tell my team, ‘We’re not here to solve legal problems. We’re here to solve business problems. Legal is our tool,’”

The Guardian has a "short list" of Uber scandals, as of June, 2017, including the use of Greyball, sexual harassment, and obtaining the medical record of a rape victim.
posted by Toddles (35 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
When can we take the whole fucking company apart? They need to be done.
posted by Caduceus at 6:31 AM on December 16, 2017 [16 favorites]


Toxic asshats
posted by Glomar response at 6:34 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


So the CoS playbook without the fig leaf of religion as protection.
posted by Mitheral at 6:36 AM on December 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


Corporate death penalty, now.
posted by pompomtom at 6:45 AM on December 16, 2017 [28 favorites]


I wouldn't be surprised at all if they start bribing a few politicians around here, since the second instance court has decided a couple weeks ago they are illegal and their only hope now is passing a law that legalizes them and voids all fines and compensation owed.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:29 AM on December 16, 2017


At this point we might as well just list the things UBER hasn't engaged in. It'd be a shorter list.
posted by slater at 7:37 AM on December 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


Mega bummed that Dara from Expedia went to Uber. I appreciate his determination to clean house but he is far too nice for a den of vipers like that.
posted by Annika Cicada at 7:44 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


"We regret to inform you that Milkshake Duck, who you already knew was garbage, is, in fact, garbage."

I mean.
posted by tzikeh at 8:10 AM on December 16, 2017 [6 favorites]


My favorite Uber headline of the week is Justice Department confirms criminal probe in Uber case. This may be another aspect of the Waymo/Uber case; in addition to the civil lawsuit there's also a potential criminal indictment against Anthony Levandowski for trade secret theft. So far we don't know who has been indicted, but now we know someone has. It may be unrelated to Waymo and have to do with violating bribery laws instead, a different form of criminal activity the company seems to be involved with.

There's been a grim sort of pleasure in watching all these Uber scandals roll out. This is what happens when a completely unethical founder of a company has free rein without caring about legal or moral niceties. I used to defend a bit of their rule bending back when it seemed they were just undermining the corrupt taxi industry in the US. But they've gone way, way, way beyond that. There's a lovely quote about all this in this Matt Levine article
it seems to me that a lot of Uber's value comes from a form of regulatory arbitrage. But it is not the form of regulatory arbitrage that I am familiar with, where you carefully analyze the rules in order to build products that get the best possible treatment under different regulatory regimes. It is more just "hey a good arbitrage would be to ignore these regulations." If that is the core idea that made your company successful, it is going to pervade a lot of your decisions, not just the ones about taxi licensing. And it's going to be hard to pivot away from it.
So now we have a new Uber under a new boss promising to reform everything. But the lawsuits hang over them. And Travis keeps lurking around meddling in the board and plotting his return. And also their finances make less sense than ever. I keep wondering about this SoftBank investment that's been coming and coming for months now. At this point it feels more like a rescue bailout.
posted by Nelson at 8:12 AM on December 16, 2017 [8 favorites]


Is Weinstein on the board?
posted by bz at 8:29 AM on December 16, 2017


It's gotten to the point that Google changed its motto to "Don't be Uber."
posted by gauche at 9:02 AM on December 16, 2017 [15 favorites]


Take Lyft whenever you can. That's what I do.
posted by Triplanetary at 9:08 AM on December 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


Take Lyft whenever you can. That's what I do.
Lyft just came to Toronto on Tuesday. I switched today!
posted by chococat at 9:28 AM on December 16, 2017


At this point we might as well just list the things UBER hasn't engaged in. It'd be a shorter list.


Has Uber engaged in regicide yet?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:40 AM on December 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Has Uber engaged in regicide yet?

Perhaps we also need a list of things Uber has not done, but would be believable if it had.
posted by Revvy at 10:00 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm waiting for the news that Uber hired a private army to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone or Papua New Guinea.
posted by clawsoon at 10:00 AM on December 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


What if, Uber is a giant RICO Act sting to indict Wall Street, the Saudis, Chinese oligarchs, Jeff Bezos, and Jay-Z
posted by Apocryphon at 11:13 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


These are Uber's easy, carefree days of breathless press hype and infinite investor cash. If you think they're evil now, just wait until their investors starting the hard questions, like when are they going to start making money.
posted by ryanrs at 11:18 AM on December 16, 2017


Speaking of Uber's incapacity to turn a profit, I loved this long, fascinating take. Especially the parts about the history of the taxi industry and very similar dynamics in the past.

Here's a key quote:
The taxi industry that Uber is seeking to disrupt was never profitable when allowed to expand in unregulated markets, reflecting the industry’s low barriers to entry, high variable costs, low economies of scale and intense price competition -- and Uber’s current business model doesn’t fundamentally change these structural industry characteristics. It is indeed ironic that Uber’s fierce determination to avoid regulatory oversight condemns the company to unprofitable operations that the taxi industry experienced during its pre-regulatory era.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Uber goes belly up in the next two years.
posted by overglow at 11:28 AM on December 16, 2017 [9 favorites]


I'm waiting for the news that Uber hired a private army to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone or Papua New Guinea.

Couper?
posted by chavenet at 11:42 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


The opening scene to The Naked Gun except with Uber's board of directors
posted by Apocryphon at 11:59 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Another tragedy (travesty?) is that "Uber" now seems to be the verb for "calling a cab on the internet". Or at least that's been my experience. I've even caught myself saying it...have only ever used Lyft.
posted by snwod at 1:27 PM on December 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


Uber’s current business model doesn’t fundamentally change these structural industry characteristics.

Cars are expensive, gas is expensive, labor is expensive and Uber's current model is about externalizing those costs as much as possible onto drivers, users, taxpayers, and investors. This isn't a sharing economy company at all. They're the model for 21st century robber barons.
posted by Revvy at 2:10 PM on December 16, 2017 [9 favorites]


Move fast and break things.
posted by medusa at 2:15 PM on December 16, 2017


We'll straight-up break the law, which will let us have an edge. We'll make money. Except we'll have to spend that money on legal bills, settlements, and lobbying to delay the inevitable regulatory wise-up.

I get that "walk the edge, and accept the occasional mistake" is one strategy, but usually "blatantly disregard the existence of an edge and do whatever you want" is left to the mafia. Uber's "innovation" is acting like the mafia. Don't work within the law; bully, intimidate, and bribe so you don't have to.
posted by ctmf at 3:55 PM on December 16, 2017


NYT reported on this two weeks ago. I'm sort of curious why they're doing so again... there doesn't seem to be any new news here. Uber certainly deserves the scrutiny, though.
posted by Coventry at 5:01 PM on December 16, 2017


if we have to live under a conservative government that believes in both corporate personhood and the death penalty, having corps like uber executed by the feds is the least we can ask for
posted by murphy slaw at 5:05 PM on December 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


I can’t figure out why Uber buying a huge fleet of self-driving cars to replace people who are willing to work for around minimum wage and provide their own cars, makes any economic sense. Uber is both rapacious and stupid!
posted by monotreme at 6:25 PM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


To a certain kind of capitalist, even minimum wage is too high.
posted by rhizome at 6:59 PM on December 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


To a lot of capitalists, any wage is too high.
posted by tavella at 8:19 PM on December 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Another tragedy (travesty?) is that "Uber" now seems to be the verb for "calling a cab on the internet". Or at least that's been my experience. I've even caught myself saying it...have only ever used Lyft.

I have not used Uber since the last round of scandals, only Lyft, and caught myself saying "let's Uber it" on a trip today.

I think the problem is that Lyft is not (at least phonetically/as pronounced) a coined word. So if you say "catch a Lyft," it begs the question "how?" We need to put our best LYnguists on this.
posted by randomkeystrike at 8:49 PM on December 16, 2017


Lyft is only trivially better! Lyft is still actively screwing people! Their whole business model is built on deliberate discrimination! What I've said before (s/Uber/Lyft/g):
Try hailing a wheelchair-accessible Uber car almost anywhere in their market. Go ahead -- I'll wait.

Meanwhile, the local cab companies are legally required (ADA Title III) to operate some number of wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Uber, etc., hand-wave that requirement away by saying they're "not a cab company" and thus push that cost onto the cab companies. Uber, etc., take only the most profitable routes and customers for themselves. It's discrimination, plain and simple, and is a great exemplar of how these companies operate. This sort of behavior pops up all over their business model.

So I hope you'll forgive me if I don't shed a tear for a company that really helps some people at a deliberate, discriminatory cost to others. They don't deserve my tears and they don't deserve anyone's dollars.
posted by introp at 8:03 AM on December 17, 2017 [6 favorites]


Speaking of Uber saying "we're not a livery service", the European Court of Justice begs to differ:

In its ruling, the ECJ said that a service whose purpose was "to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys" must be classified as "a service in the field of transport" in EU law.

It added: "As EU law currently stands, it is for the member states to regulate the conditions under which such services are to be provided in conformity with the general rules of the treaty on the functioning of the EU."

posted by NoxAeternum at 7:32 AM on December 20, 2017


who'd think "old thing + a smartphone app" does noes mean "exempt from regulations of the old thing"
posted by lmfsilva at 11:25 AM on December 20, 2017


who'd think "old thing + a smartphone app" does noes mean "exempt from regulations of the old thing"

A lot of techies who grew up on Barlow's manifesto without considering all of its ramifications.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:41 AM on December 20, 2017


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