Letter accuses Uber of using undercover agents to steal data from rivals

A letter published by a US court on Friday alleges that the under-fire cab firm set up a covert unit whose role was to engage in undercover surveillance and steal competitors’ secrets.
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The letter was written by lawyers for Richard Jacobs, a former Uber employee who left the firm in February after an incident in which he felt he had been unfairly demoted.

The letter was handed to the court as part of the preparations for a trial due to begin soon in which Google spin-off Waymo accuses Uber of stealing its self-driving vehicle technology. Waymo alleges that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski, downloaded “highly confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design files and testing documentation” before subsequently resigning and founding self-driving truck company Otto. Uber subsequently bought Otto, but refutes the allegation that any of Waymo’s designs have been used in its own car designs.

In fact, Uber fired Levandowski in May for refusing to cooperate in court after he used his right to the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid self-incrimination when ordered by a federal judge to provide testimony. Uber continuously urged the engineer to provide his side of the story, but after missing an internal deadline to hand over information, he was fired.

The letter was sent by Jacobs to Uber in May, but has only just been made public by special master John Cooper, who reprimanded Uber for withholding the letter from court.

The allegations included in the letter include Uber stealing data from its rivals, hacking into their computer systems, and infiltrating a rival company’s WhatsApp group. All these activities were allegedly carried out by Ubers Threat Operations (ThreatOps) group. According to the letter, the group “frequently engaged in fraud and theft, and employed third-party vendors to obtain unauthorized data or information.”

Since writing the letter, Jacobs has said that some of what he alleged in it was not true, including remarks about stealing Waymos trade secrets. Nonetheless, the trial is due to go ahead, though it has now been pushed back to February 2018.
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The letter was written by lawyers for Richard Jacobs, a former Uber employee who left the firm in February after an incident in which he felt he had been unfairly demoted.

The letter was handed to the court as part of the preparations for a trial due to begin soon in which Google spin-off Waymo accuses Uber of stealing its self-driving vehicle technology. Waymo alleges that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski, downloaded “highly confidential files and trade secrets, including blueprints, design files and testing documentation”, before subsequently resigning and founding self-driving truck company Otto. Uber subsequently bought Otto, but refutes the allegation that any of Waymo’s designs have been used in its own car designs.

The letter was sent by Jacobs to Uber in May, but has only just been made public by special master John Cooper, who reprimanded Uber for withholding the letter from court.

The allegations included in the letter include Uber stealing data from its rivals, hacking into their computer systems, and infiltrating a rival company’s WhatsApp group. All these activities were allegedly carried out by Ubers Threat Operations (ThreatOps) group. According to the letter, the group “frequently engaged in fraud and theft, and employed third-party vendors to obtain unauthorized data or information.”

Since writing the letter, Jacobs has said that some of what he alleged in it was not true, including remarks about stealing Waymos trade secrets. Nonetheless, the trial is due to go ahead, though it has now been pushed back to February 2018.