Uber and its ethical issues.

January 26, 2020

This blog basically deals with Uber's company profile and some ethical issues that are being faced by the company.It also deals with how this company is becoming a safety hazard for its customers as well as the whole society despite its market reputations.

UBER Technologies Inc. is an American multinational company that deals with transportation of its passengers from one place to other through online bookings.Its headquarters are in San Francisco,California.As of 2019 the Uber service is available in almost 80 countries.

Despite its increase in demand and increasing popularity, Uber is facing many protests and complaints all over the world. Uber has been found neglecting its responsibility towards society and not following its code of conduct by indulging in unethical practices.

The following are some of the ethical issues which are highlighted.

Ethical issues

Passenger Safety

According to New York Times,many Uber drivers have been charged with sexual harassment and sexually misbehaving with the passengers.The reasons for such incidents are that there are no proper background checks of the uber drivers.Also,there are no proper set criteria for the requirements in order to become a driver.According to the recent reports many uber drivers are found indulging in unethical practices like sexual harassment,rapes,sexual assaults and so on with its passengers.Some of the recent incidents are as followed:

1.A passenger in Chicago accused Uber driver of sexually assaulting her.

2.In London, a case had been registered against an Uber driver who misbehaved with a women passenger.

http://wtnh.com/2016/01/22/florida-UBER-driver-attack-caught-on-camera/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-attacking-UBER-driver-passenger-sues-him-for-5m/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rising-safety-issues-that-could-throttle-UBER/

Privacy

Recently,UBER has been accused of secretly keeping track of their passengers with the help of a smart phone app and also recording customers private conversations.The tracking system that the company uses in order to keep a track on its customers is called as 'God View',through which they can access customers contact list and send an advertisement of their services.

In June 2015, EPIC( Electronic Privacy Information Center),a non profit organisation filed an official complaint against Uber about its misuse of customer's privacy terms.

Recruitment and Unethical Conduct of Employees

Uber is accused of following unethical recruitment and behavior of its employees. UBER has hired some employees as their brand ambassadors and have given them the credit cards so that they can create a duplicate account with its competitors in order to lure their drivers.This program is called as SLOG(Supplying Long Term Operations Growth) by Uber.

Unethical Leadership by UBER

CEO of Uber,Travis Kalanick admitted that he tried to obstruct the fundings of his biggest rival Lyft. He was also quoted saying that his company tried to talk investors out of raising money for Lyft.

Secondly,the CEO has also referred to his company as "Boob-er" by which he meant that running UBER has helped him meet girls.

Recommendations:

Passenger's Safety

As there are dozens of law suits that are filed against Uber company regarding concerns over passengers safety,The higher authority of Uber should set up a safety committee that should only look after the safety of the passengers in order to avoid any such incidents like sexual harassment,assaults in the future.Also if such incident happens then strict action should be taken by the Uber company against that driver without any delay.

Security of Drivers

Lots of incidents have been reported in the past about assaults over drivers like beating them,abusing them and misbehaving with them.However the company failed to take any action in the past.In order to overcome this problem security cameras must be installed inside the car and also the customers who would book the cab must priorly be informed about the security cameras that are installed for their safety through a message.

Privacy Issues

Firstly,There should be certain rules and regulations over the company of about the type of data that it could collect like payment information which is required by the company as the part of their travel information.

Secondly, UBER is required to delete the information that it collected from the customer at the time of booking after the ride is completed.

UBER should also properly verify the background details of their drivers before hiring them so that there are no more assaults from the driver over the passenger.

Thank You.....