Uber has a secret program to foil law enforcement

Since Uber’s inception, the app has had a feature to elude the government efforts to stop drivers from driving without a taxi license, according to the New York Times. The feature, known as “Greyballing,” blocks suspected city officials from calling drivers. When blacklisted officials logged in to Uber, they would be shown a fake map populated with cars that didn’t actually exist. If officials hailed these imaginary cars, the ride would mysteriously get canceled before they got picked up.

Under the rules and regulations in most cities this type of practice is prohibited, but Uber insisted that it was simply a market maker — connecting drivers with riders — and not subject to city taxi regulations. So officials’ only option in many cases was to enforce the law against drivers: fining them or even impounding their cars if drivers were caught picking up passengers without a license.

Uber are dodging the questions surrounding the program especially with comments such as, “This program denies ride requests to users who are violating our terms of service — whether that’s people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret ‘stings’ meant to entrap drivers,” Uber said in a statement.

The Greyball story follows a line of damaging developments at the company, which represents a time of instability. Less than two weeks ago, a female Uber engineer accused Uber of having a misogynistic culture that turned a blind eye to sexual harassment. Days later, Google’s Waymo unit sued Uber, alleging that Uber used stolen Waymo technology in its own self-driving cars. Then video surfaced of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick lecturing a driver about “responsibility” during an argument about Uber’s falling fares.