Turns Out Uber Had Yet Another Secret Program To Thwart Police Raids: Report

Uber is currently facing as many as five criminal probes over various schemes from the company’s earlier years under former-CEO Travis Kalanick, but could face more legal scrutiny thanks to yet another secret program unveiled Thursday by Bloomberg.

The ride-hailing company, well-known for its reputation to flout regulations, had a practice of stymying police raids by using a remote system it created called Ripley. From early 2015 until late 2016, Ripley was deployed as many as two dozen times to thwart police raids in foreign countries and thereby shield evidence from authorities, Bloomberg reports, citing three unnamed people familiar with the program:

The Uber HQ team overseeing Ripley could remotely change passwords and otherwise lock up data on company-owned smartphones, laptops, and desktops as well as shut down the devices. This routine was initially called the unexpected visitor protocol. Employees aware of its existence eventually took to calling it Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver’s flamethrower-wielding hero in the Alien movies. The nickname was inspired by a Ripley line in Aliens, after the acid-blooded extraterrestrials easily best a squad of ground troops. “Nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

Uber and other companies have reason to protect the kind of information it maintains, Bloomberg says, but the issue is that some employees “felt the program slowed investigations that were legally sound in the local offices’ jurisdictions.” And that could present yet another legal problem for the company.

Prosecutors may look at whether Uber obstructed law enforcement in a new light. “It’s a fine line,” says Albert Gidari, director of privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society. “What is going to determine which side of the line you’re on, between obstruction and properly protecting your business, is going to be things like your history, how the government has interacted with you.”

There’s been vague mentions of the program’s existence in the past—a former employee in 2016 detailed an episode from a Montreal police raid that showed how Ripley could work—but the massive scope of the program wasn’t known until Bloomberg’s story.

For its part, Uber told Bloomberg that, similar to “every company with offices around the world, we have security procedures in place to protect corporate and customer data,” Uber said in a statement. “When it comes to government investigations, it’s our policy to cooperate with all valid searches and requests for data.”

In a statement to Jalopnik, an Uber spokesperson described one use of this type of program: “For instance, if an employee loses their laptop, we have the ability to remotely log them out of Uber’s systems to prevent someone else from accessing private user data through that laptop.”

The existence of Ripley comes at a precarious moment for Uber. Later this month, a blockbuster trial between Google’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, and Uber kicks off. Waymo accused Uber in a lawsuit last year of using stolen tech files to advance its autonomous driving program. (Uber denies the claims.)

The FBI is also investigating Uber for spying on Lyft drivers, and the feds are also looking into Uber’s use of a secret program called Greyball that helped it undermine law enforcement officials investigating the company.

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : 

Open questions to Mike 'on side' Brown

How many hits are there going to be before you revoke Uber's provisional licence under the one hit and your out system???

How many more rapists are we going to see jailed?

How many more assaults?

How many more drug deals?

How many more terrorist attacks?

Before you act Mike???

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No entry! Backlash at plans to shut off Judd Street to cars

Residents warn polluting traffic will be diverted into residential streets by King's Cross changes

COUNCIL chiefs have been warned that shutting off one of the best-known roads in King’s Cross to cars and lorries will backfire, increasing pollution in side streets and sending traffic to an accident blackspot.

Camden is preparing to block off Judd Street – the road the Town Hall is on – to all traffic apart from cyclists, opening up a new front in the see-saw conflict between frustrated drivers behind the wheel of a car and those travelling through the borough on two wheels.

Black cab drivers have already raised concerns about the changes, while in reply the London Living Streets campaigners say Camden is right to prioritise access to pedestrians and cyclists over polluting vehicles.

But residents in King’s Cross and Bloomsbury insist they will be the big losers in the row, predicting that heavy traffic serving King’s Cross will be diverted into their streets, and then towards Dukes Road – the scene of a litany of "near-misses" and the death of Mark Welsh, a 55-year-old who was hit by a lorry turning left last year.

More than 60 residents were at a public meeting at the Lumen Church in Tavistock Place, called by the Bloomsbury Residents Action Group (BRAG), on Tuesday evening, Most raised concerns about a spiralling route that car drivers – and ambulance services – may be left with to get through the area. They also complained about what they say is a lack of meaningful consultation by the council, but said they feared being unfairly branded as anti-cyclist.

The row has echoes of the CS11 row in Swiss Cottage, where residents say attempts to improve safety for cyclists will only turn their roads into rat-runs. That dispute saw a placard confrontation between supporters and opponents of the new cycle superhighway outside Hampstead Theatre as rival demonstrations met head on.

Council leader Georgia Gould approved the Judd Street changes last month, but objectors have now resolved to try and persuade her to think again and undertake a new consultation survey on the proposals.

John Hartley, from London Living Streets, said the changes would "open up the area" to people who cycled, improving air quality, and John Chamberlain, of the Camden Cycling Campaign, said the scheme would be the "final missing link on the route from Kentish Town to Elephant and Castle", adding: "It will reduce traffic levels and therefore improve air quality in the area south of the Euston Road."

But Debbie Radcliffe, chairwoman of BRAG, said: "There is a persistent argument that the removal of motor traffic improves air quality. But the pollution doesn’t go away, it just moves somewhere else. And the more you slow traffic down, the more pollution levels increase."

She added: "We applaud the council’s transport policy to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists in the hierarchy of movement. But these same pedestrians and cyclists will be exposed to the increased pollution that is displaced elsewhere."

Ray Allesson, an RMT trade union officer representing the black cab trade, said access to Judd Street was "vitally important" because taxi drivers often ferry people between Bloomsbury’s hospitals, and the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

A council spokesman said: "The new space at the top of Judd Street will make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross Euston Road. There will also be a new pedestrian crossing outside the British Library."

He added: "Anybody who has tried to cross Euston Road at Midland Road/Judd Street junction will know how difficult this road is to get across – this is a key reason for deciding to make these changes. This will also improve cycle links between Euston Road and central Camden by introducing raised cycle lanes along Midland Road."

Source : Camden Journal

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : by @WalkbarLDN

Should Camden even be doing this with the Tavistock Place scheme discredited in its present form by Public Inquiry and awaiting Camden's proposals to resolve those issues?

The dynamic will no longer be the same.

This #EliteCapture by these articulate know-nothings is cult like.

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Helen Chapman's Interview Faux Pas ... Could It Finally Unite The Trade!...by Jim Thomas.

In an interview with Steve Kenton published last Friday, Helen Chapman referred to the 13,000 Private Hire drivers with fake DBS as a 'Myth' and that the number was actually 2,640. 

Were we seeing Ms Chapman, deliberately playing down the situation in the same vein as the statements made to the GLA of...

'Yes they have a landline!' and 

'all their drivers have on/off insurance policies!'

made by ex Surface Transport Director Leon Daniels. 

So where did this 'Myth' come from?

Taxi leaks posted an article after we heard that Helen Chapman had bought the figure of 13,000 up, at a senior reps meeting last September. 

(We've since confirmed that this was the case with senior reps who were at that meeting).

So why did she bring up this statistic?  (You may well ask)

At the meeting, TfL allegedly* told our senior trade representatives, they (TfL) had known since January 2017, that 13,000 private hire drivers needed to reapply, after using a discredited, unauthorised company which supplied their DBS certificates. 

At that meeting, Helen Chapman allegedly* added that 2,600 out of the 13,000 drivers had already been identified, who would need to reapply. 

She also allegedly* said she envisaged no problem would arise and would personally vouch for these drivers. (Wonder how many of these Uber drivers amongst the ones recently jailed for rape, were vouched for by Helen Chapman?)

(*)Notice that we've said allegedly*....we only have the trade reps word on this, and although we believe what we're told by our senior reps, there were no recorded minutes taken at the time....so officially, the meeting didn't take place and no one was actually accountable for anything that may have been said !!!

This figure referred to in Steve Kenton's interview, was never a myth, it wasn't plucked out of thin air, it was the figure given to the senior trade reps at this meeting by Helen Chapman herself. (According to the senior trade rep we spoke to)

By December it had seemingly all gone quiet again.

Helen Chapman made this reply to Steve Garelick (GMB), who was inquiring 'what had happened about the 13,000 drivers who had used an unauthorised third party for their DBS enhanced checks?'

She wrote:

"All London PH drivers must do an enhanced DBS check. After reviewing the 13,000 records, we identified and contacted 2,600 drivers who needed to request a new enhanced DBS check with our approved provider."

Not quite what she had told the trade reps in September, but again the figure of 13,000 was actually mention (so, not a myth then).

It appears (in our opinion), Helen Chapman was using this interview to play down and finally sanitise the issue which keeps popping up in articles on Taxi and Private Hire media platforms and publications. 

Because this has appeared in print unchallenged, she will in future just keep referring to the issue as ‘fake news’.

It would now appear that we can no longer believe anything that Helen Chapman says or writes in future!!!

This is the reason why all trade orgs, in a 100% united voice must refuse to meet with TfL under any circumstance unless the meeting is fully minuted.

Just to put a finer edge on this issue, at last weeks meeting, the man who called Taxi drivers, protesting to save their jobs LOONIES...The man who insisted it was a done deal that all CC readers should be fitted in the rear passenger compartment....told other trade reps he was now telling all his members to get themselves a hand held unit to use in the front of the Taxi.

You couldn't make this up. 

One wonders if there's been a done deal to sell these units from the reception of Taxi House???

But again, we only have the other trade reps word on this as there are no minutes recorded.

We must never be put in this position again!!!

What Helen Chapman has actualy done by her alleged false statement, is to prove the absolute need for all future meetings with TfL to be minuted, because without formal minutes, no meeting has officially taken place. Without formal minutes, no one is accountable and there are people on both sides of the table that this has suited for far too long.

When we're told "we've threatened TfL with this"... how do we know this is factual if there's no minutes as proof?

Chapman knows that other than the statement she made to Steve Garelick, there is no record anywhere, so she can say whatever she likes! 

It would be nice to see drivers drop the tribalism and unite completely behind this issue. It's up to you the drivers, to put pressure on your respective trade orgs to insist all future meetings across the board with TfL, no matter how small, can no longer take place without full minutes of the meeting being recorded. 

We don't want Chairman, or General Secretaries coming out of a secret squirrel meeting with TfL, professing that 'It's all a done deal" in future!

What we do need is total transparency, not a word of mouth gentlemen's agreement.

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

Another Faux Pas was made this week by Uber when their legal team referred to... ‘the driver app Meter’. 

Funny that...didn't they go to court in London to prove it wasn't a meter?

* Still no landline!

* Still working outside their licensed area!

* Still many Uber drivers with no hire and reward insurance!

* Road traffic collisions escalating at record highs!

* UberRape alleged to be running at one a week!

* Another perverted, seedy driver jailed yesterday!

* Still drivers cancelling jobs for no reason other than racking up the pounds.

* Still charging for imaginary clean ups.

One hit and your out, fit and proper Emma...don't make my laugh.

But then, we said years ago that the meter case was a complete and utter waste of licence fee money. 

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Team Be Lucky skydive for the Taxi Charity

Well done to all who did the parachute jump up at Langar Airfield Nottingham, in aid of the Taxi Driver Charity for Veterans.

On 26 July 2018, Team Be Lucky, made up of four London cabbies, two veterans and a Taxi Charity committee member, undertook tandem skydives with the Red Devils to raise much needed funds for the Taxi Charity.

Team Be Lucky is made up of cabbies Michael Calvey, Dean Euesden, Jon Southcott and Brian Heffernan; Korean War veteran Bill Parr (85) and Chelsea Pensioner Mike Smith (70); and Taxi Charity committee member and vice president, Frances Wyhowska.

See the periscope video with interviews.

  https://www.pscp.tv/w/bispkDE2MDc2Mjh8MVlwS2tMb2p5QkVHasN9MFqDOKJ_0s5-KcB53rQ9UP0mDrySL49UdSOb8Q2d?t=3m30s

Please go to the donation page 

https://mydonate.bt.com/events/taxicharityskydive2018/454191

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After NYC Announce Cap On Ride Share Numbers, More Bad News For Uber As Study Backs Pay Rise

Ridesharing companies such as Uber in New York City are facing more pressure than ever to increase pay for their drivers. The burg's Taxi and Limousine Commission has released a study recommending raises for drivers with companies like Uber and Lyft. 

Economists James Parrott and Michael Reich suggest workers should receive $17.22 an hour after expenses, a roughly 22.5 percent boost to the net pay. That would give them an effective $15 per hour with paid time off.

About 85 percent of drivers don't make this kind of pay, Parrott and Reich said. And that's notable given NYC's relatively uncommon market: unlike in most cities, ridesharing drivers need a license, plates and commercial insurance to operate. They're more likely to be full-time or committed part-time drivers who depend on ride hailing for their living.

The economists suggested multiple ways to raise pay for drivers beyond simply charging more per ride (a typical fare might increase by 3 to 5 percent). They suggested an additional charge for shared-ride services like UberPool and Lyft Line, which might see an uptick in demand if customers shied away from solo trips.

The Commission requested the study as part of a bid to develop new rules for ride hailing services that could include a minimum wage. It hopes to publish draft rules for public comment soon, and the study could play an important role in those early rules.

In response, a Lyft spokeswoman unsurprisingly objected to early details of the report, claiming that it would provide "financial incentives to provide less service," reducing the number of rides and ultimately hurting driver pay, not helping it. Uber shared a similar response to Engadget, but noted that the study's approach would "shrink the transportation pie" and "severely" restrict the amount of time existing drivers could access the services. The report's assertions about the industry were "over-simplified to the point of being flawed," it said. You can read both statements below.

Ridesharing companies have typically resisted attempts to detail real-world pay, and have faced lawsuits over allegations they underpaid workers. And it's no mystery as to why: they're concerned that higher pay would lead to fewer rides, reduced income per ride or both. Uber and Lyft are still losing money, and this might not help their chances of turning a profit.

Lyft made this comment:

"Lyft is proud to provide valuable, flexible earning opportunities for so many drivers in New York. We have not yet reviewed the full report, but the new proposed policy appears to create financial incentives for drivers to provide less service. As a result, there will be more empty cars, more congestion, longer wait times for passengers, and, over time, less pay for drivers in New York City. This would be a bad outcome for all New Yorkers, and Lyft is committed to working with policymakers to find a better solution."

"We share the goal that all full-time taxi and Uber drivers in NYC should earn a living wage, but the report's proposals would get there by shrinking the transportation pie; hurting riders through substantially increased prices and reduced service; and severely limiting the amount of time existing drivers can access the platform. We are concerned about the unintended consequences of implementing the findings in this report and believe many of the assumptions made about our industry are over-simplified to the point of flawed."

So far Uber have remained silent.

Taxi Leaks Extra Bit : 

This is of course major bad news for Uber's investors as the company has just surpassed $6bn in company losses.

As we reported earlier...After six Taxi drivers committed suicide, NYC regulators have decided to put a cap on ride share numbers. 

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Another Sexual Predator Who Slipped Through TfLTPH's Vetting Process Jailed.

For anyone who is under the illusion that Uber are safe a safe form of transport!!

This is Dorin Visanu above. He is a 29 year old TfL registered Private Hire driver from Harlow working on the Uber platform. 

On Thursday this week, he was sentenced at Central Crown Court to 7months jail for committing sexual assault on passengers in his mini cab.

The assaults took place in Clapham and Shoreditch. 

Visanu was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which will stay on the police national computer for 10 years and he's details will be added to the sex offenders register.

Is this yet another case of lives shattered by a perverted sexual predator, because TfLTPH didn't do their job properly, because they put revenue in front of public safety!!!

Again, we wonder if this was one of Helen Chapman's 13,000 drivers with a dodgy DBS check, that she personally vouched for ???

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What a waste of money: hundreds of taxi drivers wrongly sent warning letters for using bus lanes

Graham Foley, with a bundle of warning letters sent to taxi drivers, by the bus lane camera on the A40 in Cheltenham(Image: Copyright Unknown)

Hundreds of warning letters have been sent to taxi drivers because they drove in Cheltenham bus lanes - even though they are perfectly entitled to do so.

A mix-up means the letters have been sent to drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles by APCOA, the company dealing with traffic enforcement matters on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council.

So even though those vehicles are exempt from a ban on general traffic using the bus lanes, and also Boots Corner, newly-installed cameras have captured their registration details and letters have been sent out. They have warned the owners of the cars that they were illegally driving in the areas and would be fined £60 if they did it again

Graham Foley, owner of Dial-a-Cab in Cheltenham, said it had been alarming for his drivers to receive the letters, which must have cost the tax payer a lot of money.

The new camera overlooking the bus lane on the A40, by the Benhall roundabout, has been in use since late last month. A new camera monitoring traffic at Boots Corner has also been operating since then.

Mr Foley said it seemed APCOA had sent out letters to hundreds of taxi drivers, telling them they had been spotted driving in the bus lanes at Benhall and in Albion Street.

He said drivers working for his company had been sent 100 and therefore he thought the total number sent out had been about 1,000.

The new traffic enforcement camera in Clarence Street, Cheltenham(Image: Rob Jenkins)

He said: "The biggest thing about this is the phenomenal waste of money and that is council tax payers’ money."

He said APCOA should have been sent a comprehensive list of taxis that are allowed to use the bus lanes and Boots Corner.

And he believed the county council could easily have got that information from the district councils in Cheltenham and surrounding towns and cities, which are responsible for issuing taxi drivers with their licences.

A spokeswoman for the county council said: "APCOA now has a full list of exempt vehicles from all district councils across the county and is working hard to upload them on to the system.

"We’re sorry for this delay and would like to reassure taxi drivers that this was a short term mistake and will not be happening moving forward."

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