A top Uber executive obtained the confidential medical records of a woman who was allegedly assaulted and raped during a ride in Delhi in 2014, according to a report on Recode. Tech in Asia has reached out to Uber for a comment on this.
The report says Eric Alexander, who was the president of business for Uber in Asia Pacific, showed the medical records to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and other senior executives during the rape investigation.
It adds that he is no longer with the company, although Uber denied he was among the 20 employees fired in relation to an ongoing probe into allegations of sexual harassment at the workplace.
However, it was in the course of this investigation into mismanagement at Uber that Alexander’s handling of the situation in India came up.
See: Meru strikes while the iron is hot, even as Uber is in limbo
Uber came under intense scrutiny in India following the charges of rape filed against a driver with a criminal background, who was sentenced to life imprisonment nearly a year after the incident. The victim, who was a visitor to India, later filed a lawsuit against Uber in the US, on the charge of failing to fulfill basic safety requirements. The lawsuit was later withdrawn, but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Uber was banned in several Indian cities after the assault in Delhi. These bans were lifted after months of imbroglio, with Uber vowing to improve background checks on drivers.
Uber is currently battling legal and other disputes on several fronts, including a criminal investigation into alleged trade secret theft from Google’s Waymo, related to self-driving technology.
See: Oops, we shortchanged drivers out of millions of dollars, says Uber
In India, strikes by drivers following withdrawal of incentives have affected ride growth this year. And in the US, Uber had to admit to short-changing drivers for years. The beleaguered company has now hired a Harvard Business School professor, Frances Sei, as senior VP to help improve its leadership culture.
This post Uber fires top executive who got medical records of Indian rape victim, says report appeared first on Tech in Asia.
from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/uber-fires-top-executive-medical-records-indian-rape-victim-report
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