It appears that Lyft is conducting an investigation about its employees abusing customer data access privileges. According to a user that posted on the anonymous app Blind, the user claimed that Lyft employees abused their access to the company customer data, gathering information about individuals from executives to information about Mark Zuckerberg, The Information reports.
A Lyft spokesperson was able to confirm to The Information that the company is currently investigating whether these incidents occurred or not. The anonymous user, who claimed that they worked at Lyft, stated how employees abused their unusually high level of access to customer data. These individuals would use their high level access to do some interesting searches like looking up their ex-romantic partners, while some others checked whether their significant others were headed to the locations where they said they were going (basically not trusting them…).
The anonymous user claimed to have ‘seen employees’ perform all of these actions and much more, including stalking attractive people they’d met while taking multi-rider Lyft Line service. In addition, these individuals would use their access to look up the ‘rider ratings’ and personal information of executives at Lyft itself as well as other companies. One person even bragged about the fact that they were able to swipe Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s phone number, as well as gain access to Hollywood actresses and porn stars contact information, according to The Information.
In a statement provided to The Information, each query into the customer database is logged and attributed to a specific employee, which basically means that there’s a high chance of being traced back to individuals that abused their privileges. Lyft said that all employees are trained in data privacy and responsible use policy, which prohibits abusing customer data for reasons other than required by the employee’s specific role. Employees are required to sign confidentiality and “responsible use” agreements, which bars them from accessing, using or even disclosing customer data beyond what’s needed to do their jobs properly.
It’s good to see that Lyft is taking it upon itself to conduct an investigation. Uber saw a similar situation two years ago where it gave employees access to its ‘God View’ program, but didn’t characteristically restrict its employees from abusing the feature until the company faced a $20,000 fine by the NY Attorney General’s office.
As more information is uncovered and released by Lyft, we will keep you informed.
