An adulterous businessman in southern France is seeking damages of up to €45m (£38m) from Uber over his wife’s discovery of his extra-marital affair, according to reports…
The man, from the glitzy Riviera area on the southern coastline, says he once connected to his account on the ride-hailing application via his wife’s phone to request a driver.
Despite using the log-off function, the application continued to send her updates afterwards, revealing his travel history and arousing suspicions about his lover, Le Figaro newspaper said. The couple have since divorced.
“My client was the victim of a bug in an application,” his lawyer David-André Darmon told AFP after the case was lodged at a court in Grasse in south-east France.
“There’s a function to disconnect but the session was not disconnected and the bug has caused him problems in his private life,” Darmon added.
He declined to comment on claims in Le Figaro that he had sought damages of €45m, saying only that his client “wished to remain discreet and retain his anonymity”.
The newspaper said the bug in the Uber software was not a one-off case and had been experienced by other users.
Uber told Agence France-Presse in a statement that it would not comment on the case underway but that the best possible protection of clients’ personal details was a priority.
The only way you can use another person’s phone to order Uber is if they have the Uber app installed on their phone, meaning that ads, alerts, updates, push mails and all communication assume that the user of that phone (I.P., phone number) is the same always. Logging out would only mean that your session is closed, but the app and the settings remain the same.
If you have secrets, do not share phones, PCs, tablets or any other gadgets that by design leave a digital footprint.