Uber Lyft and others

[RTH10260]

Lyft admits it recorded 4,000 sexual assault claims in long-awaited report
Company reveals figures, promised in 2019, as ride-hailing companies face growing safety scrutiny

Kari Paul and agencies
Sat 23 Oct 2021 01.40 BST

The ride-hailing app Lyft received more than 4,000 reports of sexual assaults during rides from 2017 to 2019, the company revealed in a new report, including 1,800 reports in 2019 alone.

Lyft revealed the numbers on Thursday, after having pledged in 2019 to do so. In its report, the company said the number of sexual assault reports collected through its app had risen from 1,096 in 2017 to 1,255 in 2018 and 1,807 in 2019.

More than half of the incidents in 2019 were reported as “non-consensual touching of a sexual body part”, according to the report. Another 156 reports involved non-consensual sexual penetration, according to the report. It also listed 10 fatal assaults from 2017 through 2019, including four in 2019.

Lyft released the figures nearly two years after its rival Uber put out a similar report that showed more than 3,000 sexual assaults were reported on rides within the US in 2018.

Ride-hailing companies have come under increasing scrutiny over safety issues, especially sexual assaults, with victims and members of Congress putting increased pressure on the platforms to act.


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... idesharing

[RTH10260]

UK laws apply, possibly with EU influence at the time

‘Stop or I’ll fire you’: the driver who defied Uber’s automated HR
Alexandru Iftimie received apology from tech giant after investigating data behind his supposed fraud

Heather Stewart
Sun 16 Apr 2023 16.49 BST

Alexandru Iftimie, a 39-year-old who came to the UK from Romania seven years ago, was just about making ends meet as an Uber driver during the pandemic when he got an unexpected message from the ride-sharing app.

“I received a warning: ‘We detected some fraudulent activity, therefore you have to stop otherwise I have to fire you,’” he recalls.

“I said: ‘It has to be a mistake, I know I haven’t done anything.’ But two weeks later, I received another one: exactly the same message, with the difference that this time they were saying: ‘It’s the last warning. One more time, you’re done.’”

When he called Uber’s driver support line in an effort to understand why he had been flagged, it was a frustrating experience. The problem seemed to be that he had taken an unexpected route, though he insists he had not charged the customer extra for doing so.

“Can you imagine how difficult it was to explain to an Uber operator – I don’t know where he was – that the Blackwall tunnel was closed during a trip, and so I had to take a long detour?” he says. He was unable to get an unequivocal explanation of why he had been flagged as “fraudulent” by Uber’s systems.

“At that time my main concern was: ‘It’s my only source of income, there’s a pandemic outside, there’s a lockdown. If I lose that, then what?’

“In a normal company, you would have an HR department and this kind of issue can be solved in one way or another – not necessarily in your favour, but you would have a specialised team,” he adds.

With the help of his union, the App Drivers and Couriers Union, he went on to request the data Uber held about him; but what came back left him little wiser about what he was meant to have done wrong.

With the help of Worker Info Exchange and his union, Iftimie pursued Uber – and another ride-sharing app for which he worked, Ola – all the way to the court of appeal in Amsterdam, where Uber’s European headquarters is based.

The court found that he and other drivers involved in the case, based in the UK and Portugal, had the right to more information about the way automated decisions were made about them.

Just before the case came to court, Uber apologised and acknowledged it had made a mistake. Iftimie hopes the ruling will help others to challenge automated management decisions that threaten their livelihoods – though campaigners warn that legislation going through the UK parliament will weaken data protection rights.




https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... tomated-hr

[Volkonski]

Ohio man, 81, fatally shoots Uber driver, 61, after scammers target both of them, officials say
William Brock told investigators he shot Loletha Hall because he thought she was working with a man who called and threatened him and his family. Hall did not threaten Brock and did not have a weapon or assault him, according to the sheriff’s office and court documents.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oh ... rcna147827

William Brock told investigators he shot Loletha Hall, 61, outside his home March 25 because he thought she was working with a man who called him pretending to be an officer at the local court, Lt. Kristopher Shultz of the Clark County Sheriff's Office said.

"Mr. Brock received some scam call by a person purporting to be someone from our courts who informed him a family member was incarcerated and that he had a bond of a significant amount of money," Shultz said. "The calls turned from 'I'm an officer in the court' to 'We have this subject hostage, this is a ransom demand.'"

The person who called Brock, or an accomplice, requested an Uber ride to his South Charleston home to pick up the money, Shultz said.

"Ms. Hall did not have any idea," he added.

When Hall arrived at the home and approached the front door, Brock confronted her with a gun and asked her who she was working for, Shultz said. He took her cellphone and prevented her from getting in her vehicle and driving away.

“When she tried to get away, he shot her once, then there was more exchange between them," Shultz said. "Mr. Brock was at some point injured to his head, and he shot Ms. Hall a second time. There was more conversation, and then he shot her a third time. Only after he shot her a third time did he then make contact with authorities to report the incident."

Hall did not threaten Brock, have a weapon or assault him, according to the sheriff's office and a complaint filed in Clark County Municipal Court. She was taken to a hospital where she died from her injuries, according to the complaint.



In a grand jury presentation Monday, Brock was indicted on three counts of murder, one count of felonious assault and one count of kidnapping, Shultz said. He will be arraigned on those charges later this week.