What we found
Uber: FUber built an internal tool called "God View" that displayed the real-time GPS location of every rider on a live map — and gave broad employee access with no...
Uber employees used an internal tool called God View to track real-time locations of riders without authorization. Executive Josh Mohrer used it to track a BuzzFeed News journalist. At a 2014 dinner, executive Emil Michael suggested spending $1 million to investigate critical journalists' personal lives. Multiple employees used God View to stalk ex-girlfriends.
Airbnb: DAirbnb says it banned all indoor cameras in April 2024.
Airbnb generated 35,000 support tickets about surveillance devices over the prior decade. In July 2025, a Wisconsin guest found cameras superglued behind bathroom outlet plates. A 2025 survey found 47% of Americans have discovered a camera in a rental. Enforcement depends entirely on guests discovering violations.
Linkt: DTransurban can give police live access to their camera systems without a warrant.
Policy explicitly states Transurban may provide police with real-time access to their systems, including camera footage. No warrant required — only needs to be "reasonably appropriate" in their judgment.
ParkMobile: D21.8 million people's data was stolen from ParkMobile and posted on a hacking forum.
In March 2021, a vulnerability in third-party software led to a breach exposing 21.8 million users' data — email addresses, phone numbers, licence plate numbers, mailing addresses, and hashed passwords. The database appeared on a public hacking forum.
Lyft: DLyft told investors that safety incidents affected "less than 0.0002%" of rides.
The SEC charged Lyft with materially misleading investors about its safety record. Investigation found Lyft had systematically undercounted safety incidents by excluding complaints from multiple reporting categories. The actual safety incident rate was significantly higher than the 0.0002% Lyft disclosed to investors. Lyft settled with the SEC for $25 million without admitting or denying the findings. Investors who bought Lyft stock based on the inflated safety figures lost money when the truth emerged. Lyft's safety community report (first published 2021, after pressure from Uber's 2019 report) disclosed thousands of sexual assault reports. The company that told investors safety incidents were vanishingly rare was hiding the numbers that proved otherwise.