Uber

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Uber

Basic information
Founded	2009
Legal Structure	Public
Industry	Ridesharing, Transportation, Taxi
Also known as
Official website	https://www.uber.com

Uber Technologies, Inc is an American multi-national company that provides a variety of transport-related services. In recent years they have been involved in a number of controversies associated with anti-consumer practices.

Incidents

Uber EULA precludes trial (2023)

Main article: Uber EULA precludes jury trial

Following a 2023 car crash, Uber moved to dismiss a lawsuit, citing that the plaintiffs have waived their rights to a jury trial when they accepted Uber's Terms of Service that contain a binding arbitration clause.

Data breaches

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint for two alleged data breaches, of which Uber became aware in 2014 and 2016. As the complaint states in both data breaches, personal information was leaked:

[2014] The intruder accessed one file that contained sensitive personal information belonging to Uber Drivers, including over 100,000 unencrypted names and driver’s license numbers, 215 unencrypted names and bank account and domestic routing numbers, and 84 unencrypted names and Social Security numbers. The file also contained other Uber Driver information, including physical addresses, email addresses, mobile device phone numbers, device IDs, and location information from trips the Uber Drivers provided. [2016] The intruders downloaded 16 files from Respondent’s Amazon S3 Datastore between October 13, 2016 and November 15, 2016. These files contained unencrypted consumer personal information relating to U.S. Riders and Drivers, including, among other things, approximately 25.6 million names and email addresses, 22.1 million names and mobile phone numbers, and 607,000 names and driver’s license numbers. Nearly all of the exposed personal information was collected

Uber failed to disclose the second larger breach to consumers or the FTC for more than a year, despite being the subject of an ongoing FTC investigation of its data security practices during that time. In 2018, the FTC approved a settlement with Uber regarding these incident.

• Uber could be subject to civil penalties if it fails to notify the FTC of certain future incidents involving unauthorized access to consumer information, which includes both driver and rider information.
• The company is also prohibited from misrepresenting how it monitors internal access to consumers’ personal information and the extent to which it protects the privacy, confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information.
• Uber must implement a comprehensive privacy program and for 20 years obtain biennial independent, third-party assessments, which it must submit to the Commission, certifying that it has a privacy program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the FTC order.

Uber One Subscription plan

The FTC investigation is about the enrollment and cancellation procedures of the service, on whether it complies with the click-to-cancel rule of the FTC. The UK has recently also introduced legislation to crack down subscription traps, set out as part of their Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act of 2024 (DMCC).

Uber sabotages drivers to evade paying promotional bonuses

Drivers report evidence of Uber manipulating their proprietary app in order to thwart drivers working towards a ride-goal promotional bonus (e.g. complete 40 rides, before Thursday, to receive an extra $55).. Uber does this via;

• hindering drivers from using the app (via authentication failure)
• invoking conveniently-timed “background check” shortly before the driver will reach their goal, which prevents the driver from accepting any rides for the duration of the ‘check’, and concluding the “background check” shortly after the promotional offer ends
• not matching riders to drivers who are close to their goal, despite the two parties being located very near each other, and no other drivers are near (e.g. 15 minutes away)
• offering/suggesting rides which are “outside [the] preferences” of a driver's normal habits (e.g. far away, long-distance, at unsociable times of day)

Uber Eats

Sometimes the price a patron is given at checkout is not the final price. The price given before checkout is before fees and taxes are applied, and Uber is not transparent about this. When the customer clicks or taps "place order," the extra fees are added on which adds a lot more to the final total of the price. Uber does not disclose this to the person until the order is placed. After an order is placed, the customer is essentially locked into the sale. The only way to opt out of the sale is to haggle with a customer service representative who will often try to delay and give the customer the run-around until the order arrives, which then they call it "closed." Getting a refund after the fact requires dealing with a customer service representative, who will not help you but instead give you the run-around and ultimately deny to honor the original price.