San Francisco Court ordered Uber to handover driver DataTop Stories

June 23, 2017 12:27
San Francisco Court ordered Uber to handover driver Data

A San Francisco Court ordered online cab service Uber to provide the names and addresses of its San Francisco drivers to the city officials, who will notify them of their need to get business licenses.

In 2016, the company provided the information voluntarily, but stopped in the last month of the year, saying that further disclosures of details would violate their driver’s right to privacy.

Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer ruled that city officials and Tax Collector Jose Cisneros had a legal authority to demand the information and was not violating the rights its drivers.

Ulmer said that Uber, “failed to show that the driver information requested constitutes a protected trade secret or that disclosure would violate drivers’ privacy or due process rights,”

Uber has not objected San Francisco’s requirement of a business license for its drivers whom it considers independent contractors rather than employees.

Uber, joined by its arch rivals Lyft, provided the information on 57,000  drivers, about 20,000 of whom paid the city $91 apiece for annual licenses.

Lyft has continued to supply driver information.

The companies are supporting a legislation proposed by Sen. Steven Bradford, which allowed their drivers to get a single business license valid in all counties and prohibit counties from requiring licenses of nonresident drivers.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera, whose office sought the information, praised Ulmer’s ruling.

“San Franciscans have a right to know who is behind the wheel when they use Uber, and drivers that benefit from city services need to pay their fair share of taxes,” Herrera said in a statement.

Uber’s general manager, Wayne Ting in Northern California said that the company will appeal the decision.

The company has asked city officials to remove driver’s personal information from the public website, but they have refused to do so.

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