Judge dismisses Uber tracking case

A judge dismissed a lawsuit by a class of drivers claiming Uber Technologies Inc. violated its privacy rights Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley gave the plaintiffs leave to amend, but their window for success appears to be narrowing after repeated failed attempts to reconcile their case with privacy law, which makes it difficult for plaintiffs to prove they suffered “actual harm” due to having their information collected.

The plaintiffs have attempted to invoke the Stored Communications Act and the Federal Wiretap Act to get around that problem but have thus far been unsuccessful. Gonzales v. Uber Technologies Inc. et al., 17-CV2264 (N.D. Cal., filed April 24, 2017).

The drivers, who worked for both Lyft Inc. and Uber, say the larger ride-hailing company spied on them by manipulating Lyft’s app to study their habits and try to determine how to motivate the drivers to work only for Uber.

Corley told the plaintiffs at a hearing in September that their complaint seemed to mostly borrow salacious details from a news article on Uber’s alleged surveillance program. She said at the time the complaint provided insufficient legal arguments for why the alleged program, reportedly codenamed “Hell,” violated the law rather than just being offensive to privacy advocates.

She left one unfair competition claim intact over the plaintiffs’ allegation that Uber’s plan to reduce the number of Lyft drivers led to increased customer wait times.