science

Uber Files

Uber Files is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Uber Files rather than just read about it. In short: The Uber Files are a leaked database of Uber's activities in about 40 countries from 2013 to 2017 leaked by former senior executive Mark MacGann, who admits being "partly responsible", and published by The Guardian on 10 July 2022, which shared the database of more than 124,000 files with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 other media outlets. They included e-mails, iMessage and…

Key takeaways

Uber Files belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Uber Files to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Uber Files from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Uber Files are a leaked database of Uber's activities in about 40 countries from 2013 to 2017 leaked by former senior executive Mark MacGann, who admits being "partly responsible", and published by The Guardian on 10 July 2022, which shared the database of more than 124,000 files with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 other media outlets. They included e-mails, iMessage and WhatsApp messages sent between its senior leadership, as well as memos, presentations and other internal documents. The documents revealed attempts to lobby powerful figures including George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, German chancellor Olaf Scholz during his mayorship in Hamburg, Germany, and U.S president Joe Biden during his vice presidency, along with Emmanuel Macron secretly aiding Uber lobbying in France during his cabinet membership on the French government. The files also document the use of tools such as "greyball", used to mislead local police, and a kill switch deployed during police raids to conceal data. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick dismissed concerns from other executives that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France put them at risk of violence from angry opponents in the taxi industry, saying "I think it's worth it, violence guarantees success".

Contents

Lobbying

Uber executives met with multiple heads of state, often bypassing the mayors and transport authorities who were supposed to regulate them. These included French president Emmanuel Macron, U.S president Joe Biden, Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UK prime minister Boris Johnson and former UK chancellor George Osborne. Texts between Macron and Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick suggest that Macron might have secretly helped Uber expand in France when he was economy minister, with Macron even telling the company that he had brokered a secret deal with its opponents in the French cabinet. When the French police banned one of Uber's services in Marseille, Macron was reported to have told Mark MacGann, Uber's chief lobbyist in Europe, that he would look into the issue personally. The ban was revoked two days later. George Osborne, then UK chancellor, was described as "a strong advocate" who "liked to believe that he's responsible for the positive TfL consultation outcome" (Transport for London's decision to drop plans to tighten regulation). Neelie Kroes, former EU digital chief, was accused of secretly helping Uber by lobbying Dutch politicians, including prime minister Mark Rutte, during her 18-month "cooling-off period" after leaving the European Commission. While she denied any wrongdoing, an Uber lobbyist told colleagues that her relationship was "highly confidential and should not be discussed outside this group”. Another message said that "her name should never figure on a document whether internal or external". At the same time, her request to formally work for Uber was denied by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. Uber executives also criticised leaders who pushed back against their lobbyists, calling Olaf Scholz (then mayor of Hamburg) "a real comedian" for insisting on drivers getting a minimum wage. Manuel Valls, former prime minister of France, was privately referred to as "enemy #1" and as a "strong-minded" opponent. Kalanick also criticised Joe Biden, then vice-president of the US, for being late for a meeting. The leaked documents showed that Uber launched a charm offensive targeting leading media barons in Europe and India in order to secure more favorable treatment from their governments. It targeted the owners of publications such as the UK's Daily Mail, France's Les Echos, Italy's La Repubblica and L'Espresso, Germany's Die Welt and Bild, and The Times of India. According to Le Monde, Uber hired Avisa Partners, known at the time as iStrat, to manipulate public debate in favour of Uber. The leaked documents show that iStrat published 19 fake articles on 13 websites, including Challenges, Les Echos, Le Journal du Net and Mediapart, during November and December 2014, while a legal case concerning UberPop was being considered by the Tribunal de commerce de Paris.

Kill switch When Uber offices were raided by police or regulatory agencies, a "kill switch" was used to cut access to the data systems. This technique was used in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania. E-mails from Kalanick and Europe legal director Zac de Kievit asking IT staff to kill access to computers were reported by The Guardian. For example, it was reported that when the French competition regulator, the DGCCRF, raided Uber's offices in Paris, de Kievit asked an engineer in Denmark to "please kill access now". Similar procedures were used in Brussels and Amsterdam to prevent police accessing evidence. In the Netherlands, de Kievit was taken into custody and fined EUR750 for "non-compliance with an official order". The company claims the kill switches were not intended to obstruct justice, but rather to protect IP, customer privacy, and due process. It further claimed no data was permanently deleted, and was available for authorities to obtain later.

Greyball Through the use of a tool named Greyball, Uber was capable of targeting selected individuals, for example local police, with a fake version of the app that displayed fake cars that would never arrive if contacted. This was developed with the intention of evading the law where the company's practices had been deemed illegal. Greyball was deployed in countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Denmark, with the knowledge of senior management such as Kalanick and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty. Uber said that it stopped using the app in 2017.

Taxation London-based executive Fraser Robinson was asked to move to Amsterdam to persuade UK tax collectors that the company was not partly managed in the UK. (Under UK law, being partly managed in the UK, for example by having senior executives in London, would make a company taxable in the UK.) He refused to move, possibly for family reasons, and stepped down.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Uber Files

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Uber Files claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Uber Files before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Uber Files ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Uber Files

In research: Uber Files appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Uber Files in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Uber Files is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2022 scandals, Data breaches, Data journalism, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Uber Files outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Uber Files in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Uber Files means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Uber Files out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Uber Files in simple terms?

Why does Uber Files matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Uber Files?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Uber Files.