Three senior managers have resigned from Uber’s international, business operations, and physical security teams, amid a fresh wave of scrutiny over the company’s data security and competitive practices, the company said.
Two of the managers are staying on through the rest of the year to help with the transitions of the teams, Uber said.
While the cause of the departures remains unclear, they come as Uber is reeling from two new scandals. The company recently revealed that a 2016 data breach had been concealed. And a former employee alleged in court this week that Uber took steps to hide other business practices. There was a directive for Uber employees to use disappearing chat apps like Wickr, former Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs said.
While Jacobs has distanced himself from some of the allegations, he described efforts to “educate” employees on how to prevent “Uber’s unlawful schemes from seeing the light of day,” instructions to impede investigations, and a team of former CIA agents to help spy on rivals’ computers overseas.
Jacobs’ remarks are part of an ongoing lawsuit with Alphabet’s Waymo about self-driving car trade secrets. Waymo alleges its secrets were stolen by Uber.
Uber has denied the theft of any secrets. Angela Padilla, deputy general counsel at the company, said in court testimony that Jacobs’ claims were an effort to extort money from the company, an allegation Jacobs’ lawyer denied.
According to Recode, new chief legal officer Tony West sent staff a memo, supported by new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, telling staffers that there was no evidence these practices were still in place, but that if they engaged in any of the alleged behavior, they should “stop it now.”
The departures come as Uber is still recovering from its last staff exodus. One of Uber’s workplace culture investigations from earlier this year resulted in the dismissal of at least 20 employees. Soon after, much of the top executive team also departed.
— CNBC’s Paayal Zaveri contributed to this report.
Source: Tech CNBC
3 top Uber mangers resign amid backlash from data breach and Waymo lawsuit