A former employee of the disruptive ride-sharing startup Uber has come forward to expose the illegal tactics the company used to gain an edge on their competitors.
Richard Jacobs, a former Uber security employee, wrote a 37-page letter which was made public in federal court Friday. In the letter, Jacobs alleges the ride-hailing service set up internal teams whose sole purpose was to spy on competitors.
"Uber has engaged, and continues to engage, in illegal intelligence gathering on a global scale," Jacobs wrote in the letter. The teams infiltrated chat rooms, impersonated drivers of rival companies, and placed surveillance on executives of those companies.
Jacobs goes on to allege that Uber illegally recorded phone calls, the allegation stems from a trade secret case against Uber filed by Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving unit, who claims the Uber stole information about autonomous driving technology.
The claims follow in the wake of five federal investigations into Uber. One investigation is over alleged software tool the company used to evade law enforcement while another is over the company offering bribes overseas.
Uber has also made headlines recently for covering up a massive 2016 data breach.
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Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-employee-uber-secretly-wiretapped-executives-at-rival-companies
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