In the past month, the company has faced allegations of rampant sexual harassment and gender inequality in the ranks, a #deleteUber campaign that prompted 200,000 people to delete the app, and an apology after the company’s chief executive flipped out on a driver while being filmed on a dashcam.
Now, it’s come to light that Uber has been skirting law enforcement in cities where the service was banned.
The move is part of a tool the company dubbed “Greyball.” It uses a variety of methods to identify officials whose aim it was to suppress the service and target its drivers. The company used it in cities where Uber faced local backlash—or worse, banishment—including Boston, Paris and Las Vegas.
According to multiple reports, the Greyball program began in 2014, and is still in use today.
Perhaps worse, four current and former Uber workers anonymously ratted out the company to The New York Times.
The Times’ stories details how it works: Essentially, the tool identifies who the people are that are trying to halt the service and order a car to ticket the driver. Uber will show those users what is essentially a fake version of the app, and will not let them hire a car.
Uber confirmed the program’s existence in a statement that read:
This program denies ride requests to users who are violating our terms of service—whether that’s people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret “stings” meant to entrap drivers.
The program calls into question whether the company crossed ethical and legal lines in its early efforts to win market share.
[RELATED: Keep your cool in a crisis with these tips.]
If the news weren’t enough negative PR for the week, Recode reported that the company’s vice president of product and growth, Ed Baker, is leaving the company.
Baker is the second high-ranking Uber official to step down recently. Uber’s senior vice president of engineering, Amit Singhal, was also asked to step down after it was revealed he was part of a sexual harassment investigation at his previous job with Google.
Baker’s departure is tinged with scandal, as well. Recode reported:
... [O]ne person anonymously tipped off board member Arianna Huffington — who is one of the people conducting a wider-ranging investigation into sexism and sexual harassment at the company — via an email that Baker had engaged in a sexual encounter with another employee.
Though the encounter was “apparently consensual,” it comes at a very sensitive time for the company.
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