The judge in the $1.9 billion civil suit between Google-parent company Alphabet’s self-driving car unit Waymo and Uber released the letter of a disgruntled former employee — former Uber security officer Richard Jacobs — on Friday, laying bare a number of explosive allegations against the ride-hailing company that include corporate espionage, unlawful surveillance, illegal wiretapping, bribery of foreign officials, and illicit hacking. From a report: The letter read: “This program, formerly known as the Strategic Services Group, under Nick Gicinto, collected intelligence and conducted unauthorized surveillance, including unauthorized recording of private conversations against executives from competitor firms, such as DiDi Chuxing and against its own employees and contractors at the Autonomous Technologies Group in Pittsburgh.” Jacobs testified in court and walked back some of the allegations made in the letter, which was written by his attorney, Clayton Halunen. Days later, Uberâ(TM)s new chief legal officer Tony West issued a directive to employees to stop surveilling individuals, which Recode first reported. In a separate note to staff Khosrowshahi (current CEO of Uber) said the letter detailed enough to “merit serious concern.” While Jacobs, Padilla (Uber’s general counsel) and other employees addressed some of the claims made within the letter — confirming the use of Wickr for business-related communications — the letter itself had not been made public before Friday evening. The document prepared by Jacobs’ attorney also claimed Uber was using some of these surveillance tactics on Alphabet’s self-driving arm, Waymo. However, during his testimony, Jacobs walked that allegation back.

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Source: Slashdot – Here’s the Letter Alleging Uber Spied on Individuals For Competitive Intelligence