Uber and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week - The UpStream

Uber and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

posted Saturday Nov 25, 2017 by Scott Ertz

Uber and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

From time to time, a company has a really bad week. Not just one, but multiple incidents happen is succession that cause a lot of trouble. Sometimes companies weather these weeks just fine, and sometimes they take a major toll on the company's image for a long time. This week might have been the latter for Uber, with 2 major legal blows within very short order.

Data Breach

Uber revealed this week that they have been on the receiving end of a massive data breach, but they are not the most recent. With 57 million accounts violated, for both drivers and riders, it's the kind of breach that requires immediate attention, and immediate notification of those affected. Notification allows those affected to ensure that their passwords are safe, their credit cards are not being used, etc.

Unfortunately, Uber decided to handle the breach in a very different way. Disclosed this week, the company announced that the breach occurred in 2016, but the information was never disclosed. Instead, ousted former CEO Travis Kalanick decided to pay the hackers $100,000 for the promise that they would delete the data. That isn't exactly how hackers work, though, so you're still going to want to verify that your information is safe.

Current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi discovered the issue and was surprised to find out that there was a breach that was never disclosed. He immediately set about to see how the company handled it, and was not happy. In his public statement, he said,

You may be asking why we are just talking about this now, a year later. I had the same question, so I immediately asked for a thorough investigation of what happened and how we handled it.

In response to his findings, he said that two security employees were no longer with the company, including Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan. He continued, saying,

None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it. While I can't erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes. We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of our customers.

Bad Background Checks

This particular one is not new for the company. Uber has had several run-ins with riders and attorneys claiming that background checks have been incomplete, inaccurate or, in one case, not run. There was even a period of time where Uber had neglected to make any decisions based on those background checks, allowing drivers with violent pasts, DWI arrests and even no driver's license to drive under the company's brand.

This week, another batch of bad drivers has been revealed by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. After a driver assaulted a rider in Vail, the commission opened up an investigation in to the company's business practices and announced that 57 drivers had been allowed to drive for the company that should not have been. According to the report,

PUC staff found that Uber allowed individuals to drive with previous felony convictions, major moving violations (DUI, DWI, reckless driving, driving under restraint), and numerous instances of individuals driving with suspended, revoked or cancelled driver's licenses.

One of the drivers in question was even an escaped convict. All of these issues would obviously come out in even the least detailed of background checks. Half of them can be discovered simply by reading a local newspaper. Because of the obvious oversight, or possibly purposeful ignorance, the state has fined Uber $8.9 million.

According to Stephanie Sedlak, a spokesperson for Uber,

We recently discovered a process error that was inconsistent with Colorado's ridesharing regulations and proactively notified the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

This error affected a small number of drivers and we immediately took corrective action. Per Uber safety policies and Colorado state regulations, drivers with access to the Uber app must undergo a nationally accredited third-party background screening. We will continue to work closely with the CPUC to enable access to safe, reliable transportation options for all Coloradans.

The strangest part of this statement is the suggestion that, if it weren't for Colorado's regulations, Uber would have had no issue with letting these drivers continue. That does not instill a lot of confidence in the company's morals or safety processes. It would seem that there are certain universal truths that would fail a potential driver from contention, and that would include escaped convicts, violent felons and those who are legally not permitted to drive any vehicle.

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