Uber Issues: Why Uber can't use Greyball technology in India

Ride services company Uber Technologies Inc for years has used a secret tool to avoid authorities in markets where its service faced resistance by law enforcement or was banned, the company confirmed on Friday.

The New York Times first reported the existence of the programme, called Greyball, which uses data from the Uber app and other methods to identify and circumvent officials who aimed to ticket or apprehend drivers in cities that opposed its operations.

Rides hailed from a location near a city enforcement agency suspected of launching a sting to trap Uber drivers could be ignored or cancelled, for instance, the Times report said.

The tool allowed Uber to show images of "ghost" Uber cars on the app or show that no cars were available, according to the newspaper. Officials in certain cities without a legal framework for ride services have aimed to ticket, tow and impound the cars.

Revelations about the Greyball programme come after a series of events bringing Uber's practices into doubt that has raised customer and investor concern.

Those include allegations of sexual harassment that prompted an internal investigation at the company, a video of Chief Executive Travis Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver that led him to make a public apology and pledge to "grow up", and a lawsuit by Alphabet Inc's self-driving car unit, Waymo, accusing Uber of stealing designs for technology for autonomous cars. Uber has said Waymo's claims are false.

In an email, Uber said the Greyball program "denies ride requests to fraudulent 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."

The New York Times said Uber used the methods to evade authorities in cities including Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, and in countries such as Australia, China, Italy and South Korea.

Once the Greyball tool was put in place and tested, Uber engineers created a playbook with a list of tactics, which included looking up city officials on social media and obtaining phone numbers of cheap phones that Uber calculated enforcement officials were likely to buy, the Times said. Local officials on Friday expressed concern about Uber’s practices but stopped short of saying they would take action.

“We take any effort to undermine our efforts to protect the public very seriously,” Dylan Rivera, a spokesman for the Portland, Oregon transportation bureau, said in a statement. “We will closely examine the evidence presented in this investigation to see if it warrants changes in our approach to consumer protection.”

Uber in India

Taxi-hailing apps have been successful in India, although they have to circumnavigate the country's laws. Following the rape of a woman by an Uber driver, the Delhi government introduced rules which said that Uber should get a radio-cab license by fulfilling conditions like owning its own cabs, providing designated parking slots and so on. Uber filed for a licence, but was rejected. However, it continues to operate in Delhi.

Similarly, the taxi union in Mumbai had gone on strike to protest the state's inaction to regulate the services of Uber and Ola in the city.

However, Uber would be brave if they tried out Greyball technology India because according to law, individuals or companies tracing police lines can result in a jail sentence. According to cyber expert Vijay Murthi, the quantum of punishment is still unclear because he isn't aware of cases where people have actually tapped into police lines.

Yet, this latest scandal, clubbed with a series of others in the past few months regarding Uber could spell trouble for the taxi-curating app.

With inputs from Reuters