Fake app lets Uber outfox adversaries

lished Friday based on information provided by four current and former Uber employees who were not named.

Uber acknowledged it has used Greyball to counter regulators working with the company’s opponents to entrap its drivers.

Greyball is part of a broader program called VTOS, shorthand for “violations of terms of service,” that Uber says it developed to protect its service.

“This program denies ride requests to fraudulent users who are violating our terms of service, whether that’s people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations or opponents who collude with officials on secret ‘stings’ meant to entrap drivers,” Uber said.

Although Uber is becoming more widely accepted than in its early years, the company says it still uses Greyball as a tool in some cities that it declined to identify.

The Times reported that Uber has targeted regulators in Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, among other cities, as well as a litany of countries including Australia, China, Italy and South Korea.

The cat-and-mouse game with regulators is the latest example of the aggressive tactics that Uber has adopted while upending the heavily regulated taxi industry. In doing so, Uber has built a rapidly growing company valued at more than $60 billion by its investors that is frequently accused of bending the rules.

Among other things, the company has faced lawsuits for classifying its drivers as independent contractors to save money and stealing the technology for a fleet of autonomous cars that it is currently testing.

Uber’s rise also has raised tensions in cities that have sometimes gone to extreme measures to crack down on a service that they contended was operating without the proper permits.

In Las Vegas, local taxi regulators confronted an Uber driver while wearing ski masks.