Case Study of Uber

Uber is a ride haling app which a global phenomenon. Uber has positioned itself as innovative, fast and secure service over the past years which are one of the reasons for it popularity.  The major stakeholders for Uber include the riders and the drivers who register to use the services. They provide different data to the company which they hope is kept confidential and treated fairly. The data that Uber holds is the personal details, contact details, banking details, driver’s license (for the registered drivers) and vocational history details. Uber uses this data for provision of services and people have entrusted Uber for long with their data. Uber operates in a number of countries and a data breach in its network mean a worldwide compromise of data security.

Uber has never come out honest and timely when it comes to data breach in its server or cloud data. Uber took 2 years to bring it to light that information of 2.7 million people was hacked or breached in the UK. Also the company had admitted that data of 57 million people was breached but it covered up for an year. Uber maintained the position that it was no their servers that got breached but the 3^rd party company’s cloud which uber used was the reason for breach. (APOSTLE, 2017)

Uber rather than coming strong tried to come clean by blaming the other party. This was not enough but it was revealed that Uber decided to pay ransom to the hackers to delete the data and never inform the stakeholders. This showed lack of respect for consumer data uber had. Also Uber was outsourcing the data storage services to a cloud without informing the customers and it is uber who is liable not the other party as they customers entrusted Uber with their data.

Analyzing the event and Uber’s action on the six aspects of Ethical structure help us realize the level of problem with Uber’s decision.

1.     Consequences
Uber as a company failed to quantify the degree of harm or benefit to customers and major stakeholders. The customers and stakeholders should have been informed timely about the breach. The cover up caused the delay of timely information and this tarnished Uber’s image too. The cover up itself was unethical and paying ransom money for data indicated the problems that lie within the system. Uber failed not only on protecting the data but the trust of its stakeholders. The company’s procedure of covering up itself was criminal on ethical grounds. (woung, 2017)

2.    Society’s opinion
This is the tricky aspect. Not every legal thing be considered ethical and that is the issue with uber.  A company that has millions of customers and global presence should be considerable about the views of people. The data breach was bad enough but the cover up made it worse. The society’s opinion was affected by how Uber handled and never really apologized but blames the third party. This weakened Uber’s intent to provision of secure services.

3.    Likelihood of Effect
this is somewhere we can give Uber points. Uber decided to pay ransom and cover up to maintain harmony and not cause panic. They intended their actions to work internally and resolve the issue without it getting public attention. Uber had to sometime disclose and it didn’t end up well when it did. The number of victims was great and Uber had to come up with better security protocols.    

4.    Time to consequences
Uber had hidden the news for long and its action. At the time the news was revealed customer may not have been able to gauge the harm to them. Maybe if Uber had revealed timely they would have been able to protect their privacy. Uber’s self-interest had left the customers of a threat unaware for 2 years.

5.     Relatedness
The breach affected millions of people that may include the billions who have this app installed. This was a serious issue as Uber’s action be resonated with other service providers setting a bad precedent.  

6.     Reach of Result
Uber’s decision affected the 57 million worldwide and 2.7 million people in the UK. Not only them but every person who had the app installed. (Uber Press Team, 2017)

Uber decision may be taken as a selfish decision to protect the interests of the company. The unethical approach by the company to protect criminals (the hackers were paid off and not brought to justice) shows the weak reasoning of Uber to take a decision based on ethical standards. Uber could have managed all this in a more ethical way that would have benefited the stakeholders.     

References of Case Study of Uber

APOSTLE, J. (2017, nOVEMBER 27). The Uber data breach has implications for us all. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/e2bf6caa-d2cb-11e7-a303-9060cb1e5f44

Uber Press Team. (2017, March 21). Remarks from Uber Press Call. Retrieved from https://www.uber.com/newsroom/press-call/

woung, j. c. (2017, Nov 22). Uber faces slew of investigations in wake of 'outrageous' data hack cover-up. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/22/uber-scrutiny-data-breach-hacking