Taxi-on-demand service Uber ran into hot water last week over reports that company executives have played fast and loose with some of the location data that the service records about its customers. A couple of thoughts about the scandal:
First, it’s a reminder that whenever we allow an institution to collect information about us, we expose ourselves to certain dangers, including the danger that our information will be misused. It’s also a reminder that abuse is a potential problem not just with government but also with companies, which like government agencies have their own incentives and interests and enemies, and if they can gain power via information, they will do so unless something is stopping them.
What struck me most about the reported behavior is just how amateurish Uber comes across (a point that Joe Nocera elaborated on here). The alleged behavior—as well as the flippant way in which it was revealed—smacks of a newbie startup that hasn’t yet begun to understand the power and importance of the data they collect, and the trust they need to earn in their handling of that data—and so doesn’t take privacy seriously. (A good way for any such company to accelerate their maturity in this area is the ACLU of Northern California’s excellent business primer.)
While the Uber executives look ruthless in their reported behavior, from another perspective they look more naïve in the openness with which they bragged about their abusive plans. It’s hard to picture one of the giant, established technology companies behaving in this way. However, what’s less clear is whether that’s because the established companies would never use their data in such a way, or because they are too smart to let anyone know about it.
I think, standing back from any particular companies, it’s indisputably true that at times, companies of whatever size (just like government agencies) will be led by people who are ethically challenged. And at all times, at lower levels within organizations, there will be a Bell curve of individuals in terms of ethics. Some will inevitably be ethically challenged and will give in to temptation to exploit data in unethical ways.
Larger, more bureaucratic organizations do tend to become more regularized—hemmed in by legal and public-relations considerations that a scrappy startup has not yet developed. The Uber scandal shows how lawyering up can be a good thing. But even big companies should be expected to use data in every way that will bring them an advantage when the benefits of doing so appear to outweigh any legal or public-relations risk. Given the paucity of privacy laws, and the secrecy with which data can easily be used and abused, that may be a disturbing amount of the time.
And of course, the risk of data-abuse in the sense of wrongdoing by particular individuals is never the only one. What is also a risk is that illegitimate uses of data will become baked into the very regularized and legal systems that a company builds its profits around. That’s what we’re seeing in many other areas of the information economy, unfortunately.
Ultimately, as with government, checks and balances are the solution. But when it comes to data in the corporate sector, it can be very hard to enforce those checks. That would be true even if the U.S. had a far more rigorous, EU-style system of rules for the handling of data.
The lesson, once again, is that ultimately the best privacy protection comes from not having your data collected in the first place.
Uber should, at a minimum, take a couple of steps in response to this scandal:
- Put in place limits on the retention of customer data. Data should not be kept indefinitely, and retention should, to the maximum extent possible, be under the control of the customer. As much fun as Uber’s data scientists might have with analytics, their customers must come first. Uber should follow in Google’s footsteps and give their customers visibility into, and ability to delete, the data that is retained about them.
- Along the same lines, Uber might also include the option for a “private trip” for which no data is retained at all by the company. This would be akin to the “private browsing mode” available in most Web browsers. Some people may find it convenient for Uber to retain data about their rides—but want certain rides to be exempted.
- As my colleagues at the ACLU of Northern California point out, Uber (like its competitor Lyft) has never issued a transparency report detailing the quantity and type of government demands for the data it holds. We don’t know how much of the company’s data is demanded by regulators, police, or federal intelligence agencies, and the public should know that. It should begin issuing such reports as soon as possible.
Lyft and any other companies competing in this area should of course do the same.
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Religious Liberty
ACLU Statement on New White House Strategy to Counter IslamophobiaACLU Statement on New White House Strategy to Counter Islamophobia
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration today released the first-ever national strategy to counter Islamophobia and related forms of bias and discrimination, including hate against Arab, Sikh, and South Asian Americans. In advance of the strategy, American Civil Liberties Union and its partners had urged the administration to overhaul government programs that reflect anti-Muslim discrimination. In particular, we have called for urgent action to constrain governmental agencies from continuing to exercise their authorities and technology to wrongly surveil and investigate, watchlist, and question and detain Muslims at the border, as well as deny immigration benefits to people from Muslim-majority countries. While the White House raised expectations that many of these issues would be addressed, the final strategy ended up falling far short. The following is a statement from Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project: “While this strategy acknowledges discrimination and its harms, it does little to end them and is a squandered opportunity. For decades, American officials have invoked national security to pass laws and implement programs that disproportionately harm Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim. A serious anti-discrimination strategy would concretely address multiple bias-infused government practices that deny our communities equal participation in civic life and our democracy, like federal watchlisting, surveillance, and investigation. We’re profoundly frustrated that the administration didn’t take even the basic, overdue step of recognizing that anti-Muslim discrimination is uniquely normalized and embedded in government policies.” -
VirginiaDec 2024
National Security
Trabelsi v. Crawford, et al. – Lawsuit Challenging Unlawful Detention and Inhumane Treatment of Acquitted ManTrabelsi v. Crawford, et al. – Lawsuit Challenging Unlawful Detention and Inhumane Treatment of Acquitted Man
Our client, Nizar Trabelsi, is in the United States against his will. The federal government brought him here from Belgium more than a decade ago and charged him with terrorism-related crimes. At trial, the government’s case failed: a federal jury found Mr. Trabelsi not guilty. But instead of allowing Mr. Trabelsi to return to Belgium after his acquittal, the United States placed him in highly restrictive immigration detention and began an ongoing effort to force him to Tunisia, where he was born and where he will very likely be tortured. Mr. Trabelsi’s detention violates the Constitution, immigration law, and the extradition treaty between the United States and Belgium. Through this lawsuit, he seeks to return to Belgium, and he demands an immediate improvement of his detention conditions. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Immigrants' Rights
Federal Judge Rejects Acquitted Man’s Argument That His Immigration Detention Is UnlawfulFederal Judge Rejects Acquitted Man’s Argument That His Immigration Detention Is Unlawful
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — This week, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that the court does not have jurisdiction to decide whether the government can continue to detain Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian national who was brought to the United States against his will for prosecution and was cleared of all charges last year. The ruling means the United States will be able to continue to detain Mr. Trabelsi while it attempts to deport him to Tunisia, where he was born and where, as an immigration judge ruled earlier this year, he will likely face torture. The court also concluded that even if it did have jurisdiction over Mr. Trabelsi’s case, his claims challenging the government’s detention of him would fail. “Reviewing claims that the government is holding someone unlawfully is at the core of the judicial function, and we’re heartbroken for our client that the court got this so wrong,” said Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Center for Democracy. “The government’s arguments in defense of Mr. Trabelsi’s detention makes a hash of the Constitution, immigration laws, and its own extradition treaty.” In 2013, the United States forcibly extradited Mr. Trabelsi from Belgium to face criminal charges in the United States. In July 2023, after almost 10 years of highly restrictive pretrial detention, a federal jury cleared Mr. Trabelsi of all charges. But instead of releasing Mr. Trabelsi or returning him to Belgium, the U.S. transferred him to immigration detention, wrongly treating him as an applicant for admission and placing him in the deportation process. Over the years, the Belgian government has issued multiple formal diplomatic requests asking the U.S. to facilitate his return, but the U.S. has refused to send him back. Mr. Trabelsi filed a lawsuit challenging the government's authority to detain him. He also sought immediate improvements to his detention conditions. Those claims were not part of the court’s ruling today, and will continue to be litigated on a separate track. “Mr. Trabelsi only wants to return to Belgium after being illegally extradited to the United States, held for ten years, and then acquitted by a jury of any crimes,” said Nicole Hallett, clinical professor of law and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. “He cannot be held indefinitely and we will continue to fight to make sure that justice ultimately prevails.” Mr. Trabelsi is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the University of Chicago Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, the ACLU of Virginia, and Professor Jonathan Hafetz of Seton Hall Law School. The complaint in Trabelsi v. Crawford was filed against Jeffrey Crawford, warden of the Farmville Detention Center where Mr. Trabelsi is being held; Liana Castano, ICE field office director for the Washington Field Office; Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; and Merrick Garland, U.S. attorney general. -
Press ReleaseNov 2024
National Security
Free Speech
Ahead of House Vote on Bill that Would Stifle Dissent, ACLU Sounds Alarm AgainAhead of House Vote on Bill that Would Stifle Dissent, ACLU Sounds Alarm Again
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday on the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, a bill that would give the incoming Trump administration new power to muzzle, punish, and effectively shut down tax-exempt organizations without transparency or appropriate due process. This misguided piece of legislation would impact a wide range of tax-exempt organizations, including nonprofits, universities, and even news outlets. Last week, Congress narrowly blocked the bill based on due process concerns and significant constituent opposition. In just a few days, over 100,000 people sent messages to their members asking them to oppose H.R. 9495. Last week’s vote was brought up under suspension, which requires a two-thirds majority to pass. Tomorrow’s vote will come under regular order and only requires a simple majority. The American Civil Liberties Union led a coalition of over 180 non-profit organizations — including Planned Parenthood, AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and the NAACP — in a letter to Congress outlining why this bill is not only dangerous, but unnecessary. The letter also laid out how future administrations could abuse it to lock in power, silence dissent, and go after disfavored groups and vulnerable communities. “Every time we give the president new powers and more authority to act alone, we create an open invitation for abuse by the executive branch,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior federal policy counsel at ACLU. “While the ACLU would oppose this legislation no matter who the president is, and there is no question it could be weaponized against groups on both ends of the ideological spectrum, the rhetoric we saw on the campaign trail from the president-elect is even more reason for Congress to reject this bill.” H.R. 9495 joins two unrelated measures together: one allowing the Treasury Department to withhold tax-exempt status from any nonprofit it accuses of being a “terrorist-supporting organization” — without being required to disclose the evidence against it — and another, non-controversial measure, which would offer tax relief to Americans imprisoned unjustly abroad. The latter provision already passed the Senate as a stand-alone bill, and as the coalition letter notes, none of the groups oppose these tax-relief provisions. In fact, not a single member of Congress has thus far raised any opposition to these provisions. The fastest way for it to become law is for the House to simply pass the Senate bill.