Uber Once Again Blatantly Violates The Law; When Will It End?

I see that my favorite (sarcasm intended) company is back in the news today with yet another horror story. Last fall, Uber was hacked and the personal details of over 57 million customers and drivers were stolen. The company responded in its usual fashion, by conspiring with the hackers to conceal the truth.

While the personal customer information that was stolen only (sarcasm intended) included names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers, the stolen drivers’ information included driver’s license numbers. 7 million drivers around the world were affected, including 600,000 in the US.

Rather than reporting than theft and notifying the individuals affected by the hack as required by law, Uber kept the hacking secret. In addition, the company began negotiations with the hackers, who had demanded ransom. That led to an “agreement” where Uber paid them $100,000 and the hackers agreed to destroy the stolen information and keep the breach quiet.

There was a very good reason for Uber making this “agreement”. At the time of the hack, they were already negotiating a settlement with the FTC for lax security measures relating to an earlier hack in 2014. In addition, they had only just reached a settlement with the NY State Attorney General over that same issue. Obviously, having a similar breach become public potentially jeopardized both those settlements. So Uber did what it always does – break the law and hope no one notices.

While Uber may actually be trying to clean up its act now that they it has sidelined Travis Kalanick, the fact remains that the company was built by ignoring laws and regulations around the world in an attempt to build a monopoly in what was known as the tax and car service business. As Bloomberg notes, “Uber has earned a reputation for flouting regulations in areas where it has operated since its founding in 2009. The U.S. has opened at least five criminal probes into possible bribes, illicit software, questionable pricing schemes and theft of a competitor’s intellectual property, people familiar with the matters have said. The San Francisco-based company also faces dozens of civil suits.” And those are just the suits the company has faced in the US.

As I keep asking in all my writings about Uber, how and why is this company, which looks exactly like an international criminal enterprise, still in business?