Uber spied on rival drivers using a secret program

Uber tracked drivers from rival Lyft with a program called Hell. This is reported by The Information.

The program allowed tracking the movements of Lyft drivers and the prices at which they work. Uber was also able to identify drivers who worked for both companies and subsequently poached them by sending them more orders and rewarding them with bonuses.

To spy on competitors, Uber created fake accounts in Lyft, which the system of this service took for real. The accounts fed false location data to Lyft of non-existent drivers, allowing Uber to see where the real drivers closest to that point were.

Only a few people knew about the existence of the program, including the head of Uber, Travis Kalanick. The company used it from 2014 to early 2016, according to The Information.

• The program, as stated in the publication, was called Hell ("hell" in English) by analogy with the program for spying on Uber drivers, which was called Heaven ("paradise") or God View ("God's point of view"). The God View program, as the media has repeatedly written, was used by Uber employees to spy on customers (including famous people, including singer Beyonce ).
• In March 2017, The New York Times reported that Uber has been monitoring police officers and officials in different cities around the world for several years, preventing them from using the application using special means. This is done, as the newspaper wrote, to combat "suspended" passengers and control trips.