Uber Gets Sued Over Alleged 'Hell' Program To Track Lyft Drivers (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Uber has another lawsuit on its hands. This time, it's about Uber's alleged use of a program called "Hell." The plaintiff, Michael Gonzales, drove for Lyft during the time Uber allegedly used the software. He's seeking $5 million in a class action lawsuit. As the story goes, Uber allegedly tracked Lyft drivers using a secret software program internally referred to as "Hell." It allegedly let Uber see how many Lyft drivers were available to give rides, and what their prices were. Hell could allegedly also determine if people were driving for both Uber and Lyft. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Uber broadly invaded the privacy of the Lyft drivers, specifically violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act and Federal Wiretap Act and engaged in unfair competition. Uber has not confirmed nor outright denied the claims.

Comments

Re:How is this even illegal?

[omnichad]

It's not. And as a Lyft driver, his identity was effectively anonymized - he has far less of a standing to even try to sue than Uber.

Re:Corporate espionage

[gweihir]

You miss the point. Sure all those you are quoting will gladly spy on, maim and kill others, but they will not touch each other. While these actors are pretty bad, it would be far worse if they were at war with each other.