Uber filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and the City of Los Angeles over having their permit for scooter services suspended.
The city allegedly suspended Uber's permit because the ride-sharing company refused to provide access to real-time location data on its users, according to a press release.
"Our position has not changed even though we are complying under duress while we seek legal clarity," said Nick Smith, a spokesperson for Uber.
The implementation of Mobility Data Specification (MDS) is unlawful, according to Ruby Zefo, Uber's chief privacy officer.
"It allows the City to access and collect the location coordinates of JUMP riders in real-time, putting their personal privacy at risk," she said. "After eighteen months of searching for a compromise, LADOT refuses to address the fundamental privacy concerns raised by us and independent experts. In view of these circumstances, clarity from the courts is both a necessary next step and an obligation we have to our customers for the data they entrust to us."
Uber's JUMP services rents a fleet of GPS-enabled electric scooters and pedal-assist bikes that riders can locate on their smartphones and use for short trips that might otherwise require a car, according to a lawsuit filed on March 24, 2020 in the Central District Court of California - Western Divison. Uber acquired JUMP in 2018.
Plaintiffs allege that they cannot do business with the City unless they produce precise time-stamped geolocation data that tracks the location of their e-bikes and e-scooters in real-time while riders are on them.
"If seized in real-time, this confidential and sensitive geolocation data enables LADOT to electronically surveil dockless mobility users on a massive scale while they are on a trip.
LADOT’s large-scale seizure of private data is manifestly unlawful," wrote Uber's counsel Roberta A. Kaplan and Marc S. Williams.
The lawsuit alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution.
"The requirement to comply with LADOT’s MDS geolocation requirements violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because the MDS geolocation
requirements operate in practice as an administrative search that is fundamentally untailored and unreasonable and provides no opportunity for pre-compliance review," the brief states.