Uber gave ‘as little information as possible’ to cops, court: lawsuit

A recently filed lawsuit claims Uber violated federal law by providing “the least amount of information possible” to police and courts in response to subpoenas, search warrants and court orders.

San Francisco‘s Soha Malik alleged in her lawsuit that she was fired for raising concerns about the Bay Area ride-hailing giant’s responses to official orders to produce news.

Malik was hired in 2020 by a contractor and Uber to help respond to a backlog of hundreds of formal requests related to incidents, including allegations of sexual harassment and homicide, according to her complaint filed in County Superior Court. San Francisco.

Malik worked directly for Uber managers, who “constantly advised him to focus on efficiency rather than thoroughness, to give as little information as possible since their job was to ‘protect the customer’ (c i.e. Uber drivers), and not to provide information. it was ‘too difficult’ to obtain,” the suit claimed. He was also told not to assist law enforcement because it would “hinder his ability to reduce the backlog,” according to the suit.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Uber’s most recent safety report showed that passengers reported hundreds of incidents of sexual misconduct per year in 2017 and 2018 by Uber drivers, and dozens of fatal accidents and a handful fatal attacks have occurred each year in connection with Uber rides. The company, like rival Lyft, is also facing hundreds of lawsuits alleging sexual assault by drivers. Lyft, which said last year it received reports of thousands of sexual assaults linked to its rides over three years, did not immediately comment on the lawsuits against it.

Malik claimed in her complaint that while responding to a search warrant asking for the GPS location of an Uber driver, she asked her officials how to find that information. She was told she was “making the job harder than necessary,” and was eventually told to contact another Uber service for information. An official seemed “particularly annoyed” by concerns expressed by Malik about Uber’s full compliance with court orders, according to the suit.

Months after she was hired, this manager began complaining about Malik’s ‘numbers’, claiming that Malik was not processing and closing enough subpoenas, court orders and search warrants, according to the suit. . The manager recommended his firing because Malik “repeatedly expressed concerns” that Uber was not complying with federal law in his responses, according to the suit.

Malik was fired in January 2021, according to the complaint filed Friday.

She is seeking at least $55,000 in alleged lost wages and benefits, plus at least $173,000 in damages.