Uber Gave Regulators, Law Enforcement 14 Million Users' Information
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Information about 14 million Uber users was provided to U.S. state and local regulators and law enforcement agencies between July and December 2015, according to Uber Technologies Inc.'s first-ever transparency report.
The report, released Tuesday, notes that it is the San Francisco company's first comprehensive overview of requests from U.S. federal, state and local government agencies to Uber on information about their business, riders and drivers.
Many the world's most prominent tech firms, such as Google and Facebook, regularly release transparency reports regarding law enforcement agencies' requests for user information.
Uber notes that the California Public Utilities Commission required Uber to report information about their operations across the state.
Throughout the report, Uber pushed back against regulatory oversight, claiming that regulators ask for too much data and don't necessarily guard user privacy.
"The statistics here show how many riders and drivers were affected by regulatory reporting requirements..." the report states.
In California, information about roughly 5.4 million Uber riders and the user information of 299,000 Uber drivers was released to the regulatory agency during the last six months of 2015.
Uber's report also notes that the company received hundreds of requests from law enforcement agencies during the six-month period and produced data in nearly 85 percent of those requests.
In the form of subpoenas, search warrants, court orders and emergency requests from the government, Uber received over 400 requests regarding the user account information of over 600 Uber users from law enforcement, but only fully complied with less that 32 percent of the requests. Uber partially complied with more than 52 percent of those requests, according to the report.
The report also states that "As of the date of this report, Uber has not received a National Security Letter or FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978] order."
By Hannah Albarazi - Follow her on Twitter: @hannahalbarazi.
