The company, led by Travis Kalanick, admits that it did use the program, but only in those cities where it was "feared" for the safety of its drivers.
Private transport company Uber has been immersed in a worldwide program to circumvent the police in those markets where its alternative low cost taxi service was limited and subject to strict restrictions or even prohibited.
This is revealed by the American newspaper 'The New York Time' along with information from several employees and former employees of the company. In this revelation it is detailed that Uber used a program that used the tool Greyball, in charge of using the data obtained from Uber's own application and other techniques to identify and elude police officers trying to fine the drivers of Uber. According to the New York newspaper, the transportation company used this method in several cities such as Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, as well as in countries such as Australia, China and South Korea.
The paper explains that Greyball belongs to a program called VTOS (Violation of Terms of Service), which was created by Uber to detect users who were using their service inappropriately. Currently the program, which was used for the first time in 2014, is still in use and has the approval of Uber's legal team.
Greyball and the so-called VTOS was created in order to bypass the competition and dangerous customers, but finally, as The New York Times has proven, Uber has taken advantage of this computer spying program to avoid police, and its Fines, and operate irregularly.
Greyball was recorded in 2014
Three years ago a police inspector managed to videotape how Greyball operated in Portland, United States. The author of the video was Erich England, who used the fraudulent service in the framework of an operation against Uber. England posed as a user, but could not make use of the service, since when he asked for a car the drivers canceled the trip and never showed up. Apparently, the inspector was identified by Greyball as a police officer and automatically directed to a fake version of the application with ghost cars, to avoid being cuddled.
Uber recognizes the use of this program
In a statement, the transport company claims to have used this service, but claims that it made use of Greyball in cities where its service is not prohibited and always ensuring that it was due to "security reasons". "The program seeks to prevent fraudulent users who violate the terms of service, who are people who want to assault drivers, alter our operations or competitors who allied with the authorities in secret operations to fine and arrest our drivers," has Declared a porter of Uber to the agency AFP.
The spokesman also states that this program has been used in cities where "feared for the safety of drivers" and only "occasionally" to avoid the police.
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