Business
Uber Hacked And Wiretapped Competitors, Letter Reveals
Photo taken Aug. 19, 2008, Public Domain, https://flic.kr/p/5eE2b3
A team of Uber employees wiretapped private conversations made by competitors in a hotel, and consistently hacked into their computer systems, according to a letter revealed by a judge.
Known as the ThreatOps team, the group of security workers “remotely accessed confidential” data, “impersonated riders and drivers” to explore the other platforms’ “key functions,” “stole supply data” in order “to boost Uber’s market position,” and obtained code to decipher how the rival apps function, reports Business Insider.
The presiding judge is dealing with a case levied against Uber by Google’s driverless car company Waymo, a lengthy and even somewhat bizarre legal battle. The letter that the official arbitrator publicized was composed in May by the lawyer for Uber’s former manager of global intelligence, Richard Jacobs.
“While we haven’t substantiated all the claims in this letter—and, importantly, any related to Waymo—our new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology,” an Uber representative told BI.
Current Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took over the helm in August and is trying to appropriately deal with the companies various controversies. This isn’t the only accusation of Uber’s massive spying apparatus. The ride-sharing startup turned tech corporation has allegedly used three invasive spy programs in recent month and years, including one called “God View” or “Heaven,” and other respective ones known internally as “Hell” and “Greyball.”
The “Hell” software would reportedly be used to spy on Lyft drivers, by, among other tactics, creating fake Lyft passenger accounts.
The reports of these secret-spying technology is just one of many debacles and missteps for Uber in the past year.
More recently, regulatory bodies in multiple countries indicated their intent to investigate Uber after the company revealed in November it was hacked sometime last year, leaving 57 million people’s personal data compromised.
Uber did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for further details by time of publication.
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