Uber Practices Transparency, Gives Government Personal Information of 12 Million Users
Uber has given away 12 million users’ personal information for the sake of transparency
Photo: Julien GONG Min
If you’ve used Uber recently—or at all—it’s possible that the federal government now has your information. In a move to be more transparent, the transportation giant has released a report earlier this month, explaining that it gave information on more than 12 million riders and drivers to various United States agencies. This data includes trip requests, various pickup and drop-off locations, fares, vehicles, and more.
According to a report from Reuters, this information was all handed over between July and December of 2015. Most of the information was given due to the 469 requests from various state law enforcement agencies for cases related to fraud or stolen credit cards. The transportation company willingly assisted on these cases, providing relevant data to the agencies 85% of the time.
Given the fact that Uber has recently been under fire for its practices and is often criticized for its business plan (so much so that many taxi drivers have rioted in protest to the company), being so transparent in its dealings with the United States government is probably going to do the company some good.
As Uber has stated in its transparency report, “Regulated transportation companies are required by law to provide certain information about their operations to local regulatory agencies.”
While Uber has been transparent in the United States, there is no report stating the company’s transparency practices—and the number of requests it has received for its reports—in other nations around the world.
News Source: Reuters
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