Uber use booms despite cries for boycott

THE growing boycott of Uber sparked by claims the ridesharing app has spied on its passengers and is a hotbed of entrenched corporate harassment has not diminished Australia’s love affair with the digital disrupter.

Research, exclusively obtained by News Corp, shows up to one in four Aussies are regular Uber riders.

Details emerged this week of a confrontation between tech giants in 2015 in which Apple chief Tim Cook reportedly told Uber chief Travis Kalanick he would kick Uber out of the App Store unless it stopped tracking the phones of former Uber users even after they had deleted the app.

This week Uber faced new claims of spying on people, with revelations it was buying information about people’s use of rival ride-sharing companies from Unroll.me, a service that delivers people a summary of their inbox by scanning all of their email.

Uber has faced a backlash in recent months with the rise of the #DeleteUber hashtag on social media and an estimated 200,000 people ditching the service in protest against reports of entrenched sexual harassment within the company and the perception that Mr Kalanick has supported President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting Muslims.

Uber rejects the claim it was spying on customers, describing the technology Mr Cook objected to as being an anti-fraud measure.

Roy Morgan research reveals a dramatic growth in Uber in Australia, where in some cities one in four are now regular users.

In Perth, the only city where Uber rides have overtaken taxi rides, 24 per cent of residents have taken an Uber in the past three months compared with 22 per cent of people who have caught a cab.

Melbourne is close behind, with 22 per cent of people having recently booked an Uber, ahead of 16 per cent in Brisbane, 14 per cent in Sydney and 10 per cent in Adelaide.

The number of Uber trips taken across the country has rocketed to 3.8 million trips a month, up from fewer than 1.5 million a year ago.