Settling any type of lawsuit for big companies often comes with a large amount of press and thus a lot of eyes looking into the messy inner workings of operations. One company that’s seen its fair share of prying eyes over the past few years is ridesharing app Uber.
The drama that wages on with Uber may be coming a halt soon — at least on one front anyway. This week, the ride-hailing company has made arrangements to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that it did not protect consumer privacy in a 2014 breach. While monetary payments are not on the table, Uber will be required to hire a third-party company to monitor its customers’ data to prevent any future leak or breach incidents.
In this breach of customer data, employees were allowed to access both consumer and driver information, which left thousands of names and license plate numbers exposed. This was made possible through Uber’s program dubbed God View. Through this, Uber employees were granted access to view real-time customer locations.
Although Uber maintains it has strict policies in place to prevent unnecessary snooping on private citizens, the FTC filed its complaint, saying the company failed to uphold its end of the consumer privacy bargain. The FTC alleged that Uber failed to keep a close eye on this particular program after its automated system used to monitor employee access went unchecked less than a year after it was implemented.
At this time, Uber is not offering up comment to the news media.
This lawsuit, which did not bode well for the ridesharing company, is now officially in the past. However, with the recent departure of its CEO, Travis Kalanick, and rumors of Uber’s poor work culture, this settlement may not be enough to remedy its damaged reputation.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More