Stop using Uber

Photo credit: itchaznong / 123RF.

Since this article will make some people mad, I’m going to make this clear right out front: this is an opinion piece. It reflects my opinion, not the official position of Tech in Asia.

But with that out of the way, here’s my opinion: you should stop using Uber. Why? Because the company’s corporate culture is pretty clearly rotten to the core.

First, there’s the sexism. You’ve probably already read Susan Fowler’s story of her time working at Uber, in which she says she suffered unwelcome advances and deeply unfair treatment, receiving no help from HR even after providing them with documentary evidence. Then another former Uber employee came forward with her own similar story. Then, yet another woman came forward.

Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Uber controversies. In the past week alone, we’ve also seen a damning video of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick yelling at one of his own drivers and the reveal of Uber’s “Greyball” program, which it used to evade legal authorities in markets where its business model wasn’t yet approved or was outright banned.

But this isn’t just a recent problem. Uber’s short history – it was founded just eight years ago – is full of similarly troubling incidents. There’s the creepy “God View,” for example, which allows Uber to track any user’s whereabouts during rides without their permission. The company allegedly used God View to track the rides of about 30 relatively well-known Uber users as part of a party in 2011. It got in further trouble for using God View to track a journalist without her permission in 2014. The company claims it has changed, but a December story from the Center for Investigating Reporting alleges that God View is still in use. And a court statement from the company’s former forensic investigator – who was speaking under oath – says that Uber employees have been using the tool to track everyone from celebrities to politicians to ex-girlfriends without their permission. And late last year, Uber’s app began collecting location information in the background even at times when you’re not in an Uber vehicle.

Consumers need to consider what their Uber payments are supporting.

Then, there was Uber VP Emil Michael’s infamous 2014 suggestion that the company could hire researchers to dig up dirt on the personal lives of journalists – in particular, PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacy. Michael suggested that the company would be justified in spending a million dollars to prove a particular claim about Lacy’s personal life, as a kind of revenge for her tough coverage of Uber. Mr. Michael remains a senior-level executive at Uber.

I could keep going. There have been creepy ads, creepier drivers, Kalanick’s creepy comments, the allegations that Uber was sabotaging competitor Lyft by booking and then cancelling thousands of rides, the whole #DeleteUber controversy, and much more. But I think the point here is clear: Uber has a seriously poisonous internal culture.

I understand that Uber has also made getting around easier and cheaper for millions of people across the world. It deserves credit for popularizing the ridesharing business model (although it may not have perfected it yet; it’s still losing boatloads of money). And to be fair, Uber isn’t the only ridesharing company to have produced a few scandals.

Even so, I think consumers need to consider what their Uber payments are supporting. This is a company that clearly has serious problems with sexism. It’s a company that has been repeatedly caught violating user privacy. It’s a company that’s willing to put up with high-level executives “venting” about blackmailing journalists. If you have any choice – and in almost every market, you do have a choice – why would you want to give your money to Uber?

To be clear, I don’t hate Uber, and I don’t hope that the company fails. I would like to see Uber succeed, but not if that means the world accepting and supporting its current, poisonous corporate culture. I genuinely think that’s what’s best for Uber right now is a shock to the system. Kalanick may be starting to get that major changes need to be made, but bringing in some new executive to babysit the CEO isn’t going to solve these problems. Uber needs to make major, major changes from top to bottom to ensure that it’s respecting its own employees, respecting the privacy of its users, and adding something positive to the community. As a consumer, the best way you can push for those changes is to withhold your financial support from Uber until they happen.

(Again, this is an opinion piece.)