Uber is currently facing a backlash following their revelation of an internal investigation on one of its executives who reportedly kept track of the private travel information of a certain journalist without her knowledge or permission. This has caused lawmakers and its consumers to raise privacy concerns with respect to the services offered by the company.
This act of purportedly tracing the movements of the journalist was further shoved into the spotlight after Uber Senior Vice-President of Business Emil Michael suggested conducting an opposition research focusing on the personal lives and family members of media people found to be criticizing the company. Moreover, the VIP users subscribing to the services of Uber found that their physical movements have been kept tracked by the company's employees using a program called 'God View'.
To show their discontentment on how Uber failed to enforce security measures to protect its users, many of its consumers are now taking part in a Twitter movement against the company called '#deleteuber'.
One of the participants of the '#deleteuber' movement is 40-year-old Jeremy Pollock, who also deleted his Uber account upon learning of the security issues involving the company.
According to the ex-Uber user, one of the reasons he deleted his account was "because of the creepy way Uber executives invaded people's privacy to track them using 'God View.'"
"They have this bullying attitude like they can do whatever they want and they have a vindictive attitude toward people who get in their way. It made sense to get my data away from them," explained Pollock.
With the growing fear on the probable security breaches committed by the company, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law decided to send a letter to Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick. The message sent was clear--the senator wanted an explanation from the company regarding the allegations "that suggest a troubling disregard for customers' privacy, including the need to protect their sensitive geolocation data." A response from Uber is expected to be sent not later than Dec. 15, 2014.
