Justice Department Opens Criminal Probe Into Uber (washingtonpost.com)

parallel_prankster quotes a report from Washington Post: The Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Uber's use of a secret software that was used to evade authorities in places where its ride-sharing service was banned or restricted, according to a person familiar with the government's probe. The investigation is in its early stages, but deepens the crisis for the embattled company and its chief executive and founder Travis Kalanick, who has faced a barrage of negative press this year in the wake of high-profile sexual harassment complaints, a slew of high-level executive departures, and a consequential trade secrets lawsuit from Google's parent company. The federal criminal probe, first reported by Reuters, focuses on software developed by Uber called "Greyball." The program helped the company evade officials in cities where Uber was not yet approved. The software identified and blocked rides to transportation regulators who were posing as Uber customers to prove that the company was operating illegally.

Comments

Re:Virtual pleading the 5th

[dreamchaser]

Methods to evade laws have nothing to do with the 5th Amendment. One can argue for or against the areas that ban Uber and their laws, but your analogy is flawed. This software is more like a real criminal using methods to avoid undercover police.

Re:Poor old Travis

[dbIII]

He hasn't just been bullying, he's been sweetening people in power up as well.
It's an odd kind of feeling seeing these guys come in and treat places in the west as if it's a banana republic with easily bought officials - not just insulting but depressing when it works.

Re:Uber should be shut down

[TWX]

They are not publicly traded but they still have a business license that was granted to them. Time to revoke it and force asset liquidation. If anything it's better that they're not publicly traded, the people most hurt by the behavior are those who invested in the criminal enterprise, losing their venture capital dollars may convince them to avoid these kinds of business practices in the future.