Uber allegedly engaged in a range of “unethical and unlawful intelligence collections”, including the theft of competitive trade secrets, bribery of foreign officials and spying on competitors and politicians, according to an explosive legal document published on Friday.

It’s the latest chapter in the discovery process for the company’s messy legal squabble with Waymo, Google’s driverless car spin-off, which has accused Uber of stealing trade secrets.

The details were outlined in a 37-page demand letter filed by the ex-Uber security manager Richard Jacobs, who left the company earlier this year. The document paints a picture of a team of employees dedicated to spying on rivals and “impeding” legal investigations into the company.

Jacobs alleges that when he raised concerns over the techniques being used, he was given a poor performance review and demoted as “pure retaliation” for refusing to buy into the culture of “achieving business goals through illegal conduct even though equally aggressive legal means were available”.

He had sent the letter to Uber’s in-house counsel with his allegations about possible criminal activity carried out by the special group in May this year, threatening to sue the company. Uber did not provide the letter to Waymo as part of legal discovery before the trial started.

An Uber spokeswoman said in a statement: “While we haven’t substantiated all the claims in this letter – and, importantly, any related to Waymo – our new leadership has made clear that going forward we will compete honestly and fairly, on the strength of our ideas and technology.”

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/15/uber-letter-richard-j...

The letter, from lawyers representing former Uber intelligence manager Richard Jacobs, was sent in relation to a separate case. However, it contains claims that Uber knowingly violated corporate law by destroying, concealing and falsifying records “with the intent to impede or obstruct government investigation”.

The existence of the letter as evidence was unknown until November, leading to a court postponement.

Other allegations included in the so-called Jacobs letter are that an analytics team in Uber was allowed to“impersonate riders and drivers on competitor platforms” in order to collect information on app security, as well as pricing structures and incentives.

Revelations in the document have already been referred to in court, with Jacobs previously saying he did not stand by the letter’s statement that he was aware of Uber trying steal secrets from Waymo.

Uber said in a statement to Forbes that some of the claims have not been verified.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/usa/413414-uber-waymo-court-letter/

Oh, I remember!

Two years ago in this very spot, I was calling you "Fatty Boomka", in reference to the fact that "you fat bastard, you fat bastard, you ate all the pies" – and , since your late 20s on, have let yourself go something terrible. And you were telling me to shut the hell up and stop going on about it, because you were just about to start this amazing diet you've heard about that will strip the kilos off you in no time! And soon, you said, you were also going to stop drinking so much, and as a matter of fact had even bought an exercise bike!

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/nutrition/peter-fit...

Good luck to the thin new man...

It's not for me to stop anyone eating... But if I see one more advert for Uber with Rebel Wilson ordering and getting food delivered in a brown paper bag, I might get off my own butt and destroy the Uber headquarters on planet Zorgchuck... May be that's what Rebel should do: get off her butt, walk to her local, order the food, walk around the block twice, collect and walk home. Or do some home cooking like on MKR.

I know, life is about enjoying people doing what they love... except through advertising. Sure, advertising ables us to see shows like heist...  on free to air TV, but there is Catch-22 circular sophism about it...  

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