Uber forfeited data on 12 million drivers and riders to US authorities in H2 2015

Uber received 33 law enforcement requests in the last six months of 2015 involving data for more than 12 million drivers and riders, according to a company report.

“The document shows that we comply with the majority of law enforcement requests, while ensuring they go through the proper legal process”, the company says. “We might be asked to share the precise GPS coordinates of the pickup and drop-off locations, or even the entire path of the trip.”

The company does not notify all riders or customers on the requests it receives from regulators, according to its Guidelines for Law Enforcement Authorities: “It is our policy to notify riders and driver-partners of law enforcement requests for their information before disclosure, with exceptions for emergencies, exigent requests, when we have a good faith belief that notice would be counterproductive or would create a risk to safety, or when we are prohibited from doing so by law (i.e., statutory prohibition, court order, delayed notice)”.

A large number of the law enforcement requests Uber received are related to fraud investigations or the use of stolen credit cards, the company explains.

Regulated transportation companies are required by law to provide certain information about their operations to local regulatory agencies. These agencies may request information about trips, trip requests, pickup and drop-off areas, fares, vehicles, and drivers in their jurisdictions for a given time period. Online companies are requested to produce different types of information – like an electronic trip receipt with a trip route instead of a paper log, the report shows.On average, for each law enforcement request the company sent data belonging to 350,000 customers and drivers.