Former employee sues Uber for spying on clients

Фото: Depositphotos

December 12 former Uber taxi company security officer Ward Spangenberg filed a lawsuit against the organization in which it stated that it uses an internal passenger tracking system to secretly monitor "high-ranking politicians, celebrities, and even their acquaintances."

According to the plaintiff, the personal information of all service users, and not just stars and politicians, is at risk, the publication writes Reveal.

He said that the staff helped rejected men track down their ex-girls and searched for information on the whereabouts of celebrities such as Beyonce.

“Uber's security flaws resulted in employees tracking the profiles of politicians, celebrities, and even personal acquaintances of other employees, including ex-girlfriends, boyfriends, and spouses,” Ward Spangenberg wrote in the lawsuit.

Two years ago, Uber already got into a scandal with personal data, then the claims concerned the God View function, which made it possible to track all users of the service in real time without their permission.

She was accidentally discovered by Buzzfeed, when one of the reporters of the publication agreed on an interview with the head of the New York branch of the service. When he reached the office on Uber, the top manager was already waiting for him with his iPhone in his hand and saying: “I followed you”.

In addition to Spangenberg, five more former employees of the company's security services said that Uber continues to use this function, and can monitor any user of their application.

“The company added several features to make it harder to access such data during the scandal, and then simply renamed the feature Heaven View,” Spangenberg said.

According to him, thousands of employees working in the company can receive information about where and when users travel. He notes that this is especially true now that Uber has begun collecting location information even after the trip has ended.

The lawsuit was filed by Spangenberg after 11 months of work, in which he mentions other problems in the company, such as age discrimination and disregard for obvious security requirements.

He also assumes that in the event of a law enforcement inspection, the company will temporarily disable access to the controversial functions and destroy all illegal documents.

Uber commented on the situation, stating that all information collected is used only as part of the functional responsibilities of staff.

“Uber continues to increase its investment in security. Many of our efforts in this area, such as two-factor authentication and bug bounty, have been publicly reported. We employ hundreds of security and privacy experts around the clock to protect our data. This includes only opportunities required within the scope of the job’s authority, and all cases of violations are thoroughly investigated,” Uber’s press service said.

The company confirmed that managers and lawyers need employees to have access to data, and some of them do receive it, but only as part of their job functions.

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