The drivers claim that Uber is “failing to honor its obligations” under the law. GDPR rules state that individuals have a right to their own data, even when the person holding the data is an employer. Companies have a month to respond to data requests that are either verbal or written.
The U.K. drivers claim Uber repeatedly failed to hand over information after they requested it. They wanted info on the duration of time they spent on the platform, their GPS data and trip ratings information.
The driver leading the case is James Farrar. He told CNBC he’s gone back and forth with Uber several times since July. He claims Uber intentionally withheld “dead mileage” GPS data, which made it impossible for him to figure out how much he made an hour.
“I can only calculate the hourly pay that they want me to,” he said. “[They’ve provided me with] trip information that includes start-to-finish location points, fares and durations for individual journeys, but providing all of my GPS data and log-on and [log]-off times would allow me to calculate my hourly pay.”
This move, Farrar said, was intentional.
“Giving us the data will help drivers understand if they can get a better deal or not,” he said. “I also see lots of drivers being deactivated from the platform for little or no reason, and because they’re self-employed, there’s no need for due process — if we’re given access to our data, we can begin to challenge that.”
Uber responded to the allegations in a statement to CNBC:
“Our privacy team works hard to provide as much information as we can, including explanations when we can’t provide certain data (because) the data doesn’t exist or disclosing it would infringe on the rights of another person under GDPR. Under the law, U.K. citizens also have the right to escalate their concerns by contacting Uber’s Data Protection Officer or the ICO for additional review.”
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