Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Uber's Big Problem Is a Culture of Dishonesty

The company should be doing more to give up its cheating culture.

November 22, 2017 at 12:40 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

New leader, old style.
Photographer: Andre Coelho/Bloomberg

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Uber's voluntary disclosure of a year-old hack that exposed the personal data of 57 million drivers and customers could be taken as a sign that under new Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, the company is changing its ways. But no, Uber's biggest problem is still its culture of dishonesty -- something the leadership change hasn't fundamentally altered.

The October 2016 cyberattack was not the only one Uber tried to cover up under CEO Travis Kalanick. Last year, the company was fined for failing to disclose a 2014 hack. In the more recent case, the company merely paid hackers $100,000 -- ostensibly for not using the stolen data, but really for their silence.