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Thursday 30 November 2017 TECHNOLOGY
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Uber facing federal probe on allegations of espionage

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE tions in the letter as “scan-
AP Technology Writer dalous” and lashed out at
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Uber’s legal team for not
Federal prosecutors are informing him about them
investigating allegations before he was notified by
that Uber deployed an es- the Justice Department. “I
pionage team to plunder can’t trust anything you say
trade secrets from its rivals. because it has been prov-
The revelation triggered a en wrong so many times,”
delay in a high-profile trial Alsup told Uber attorney
over whether the belea- Arturo Gonzalez. The judge
guered ride-hailing service also called Uber’s espio-
stole self-driving car tech- nage team “a plumber’s
nology from a Google spi- unit doing bad deeds.”
noff. Gonzalez repeatedly tried
The probe under way at to persuade Alsup that the
the U.S. Justice Department allegations in Jacobs’ let-
centers on a 37-page letter ter had nothing to do with
that described allegations Waymo’s case against
made by Richard Jacobs, Uber.
Uber’s former manager of The lawyer also argued
global intelligence. Jacobs that the company used
had the letter sent in May In this Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, file photo, a self-driving Uber sits ready to take journalists for a ride secretive communications
to an Uber lawyer. The let- during a media preview in Pittsburgh. channels for employee
ter contended that Jacobs Associated Press safety reasons. But the
had been wrongfully de- tion of 57 million passengers a service called Wickr that that allegation. He insisted judge wasn’t swayed.
moted and then fired for and 600,000 drivers. automatically erases mes- he didn’t know anything “There is a 50-50 chance
trying to stop the compa- Jacobs, whose lawyer sages, according to Ja- about Uber’s espionage that this is going to turn out
ny’s alleged misconduct. wrote the letter at the cobs. team trying to steal any- very bad for Uber,” Alsup
The investigation hadn’t center of the courtroom The company also relied thing in the U.S., suggesting said.
been publicly known until drama, testified Tuesday on a surreptitious computer he missed the purported “And there is a 50-50
Tuesday, when it surfaced that Uber had set up a unit system to eliminate all digi- mistake because he spent chance that this will turn
in a court hearing that called Marketplace Ana- tal trails, and dispatched only about 20 minutes re- out to be a dry hole.”
was supposed to set the lytics to steal trade secrets its security team to train viewing it while he was on In a statement defend-
stage for a trial pitting Uber from its rivals overseas. He self-driving car engineers in vacation with his wife. ing itself, Uber pointed to
against Waymo, a self-driv- didn’t specify which com- Pittsburgh how to conceal Uber paid Jacobs $4.5 mil- Jacobs’ testimony that he
ing car pioneer that started petitors Uber had targeted. their electronic tracks, Ja- lion as part of a confiden- wasn’t aware of the com-
within Google eight years His allegations had been cobs testified. tial settlement after his pany stealing any of Way-
ago. kept under wraps until the Uber’s espionage team firing, Jacobs said while mo’s trade secrets. “None
The hearing instead quickly Justice Department passed also hired contractors being grilled by Waymo of the testimony (Tuesday)
turned into a forum rais- them along to U.S. District who employed former CIA lawyer Charles Verhoeven. changes the merits of the
ing more questions about Judge William Alsup last agents to help with its sur- Part of that settlement in- case,” Uber said.
Uber’s ethics and cor- week. veillance, according to Ja- cludes Uber stock, a $1 mil- In its statement, Waymo
porate culture. Over the In an unusual move, Alsup cobs. lion consulting fee and a called the latest allegations
past year, Uber has been had recommended in May Pressed under questioning, provision requiring him not against Uber “significant
rocked by revelations of that the Justice Depart- Jacobs acknowledged to say anything that would and troubling.”
rampant sexual harass- ment open a criminal inves- that the letter also alleged harm Uber. Alsup postponed the
ment inside the company, tigation into Uber, based that Uber had stolen trade “It is possible that he has scheduled Dec. 4 start of
technological trickery de- on the evidence he had secrets from Waymo, as been bought off by Uber,” the Waymo-Uber trial to
signed to thwart regulators heard in the Waymo case. well as other intellectual Alsup said of Jacobs at one give Waymo more time to
and a yearlong cover-up To protect itself against property in the U.S. point during Tuesday’s dra- gather evidence. He didn’t
of a hacking attack that potential trouble, Uber fre- But Jacobs said that his law- ma. immediately set a new trial
stole the personal informa- quently communicated on yer was mistaken in making Alsup described the allega- date.q

Facebook turns to AI to help

prevent suicides

NEW YORK (AP) — Face- anyone reports them. in the U.S. and is making
book is turning to artificial The service will scan posts it available in most other
intelligence to detect if and live video with a tech- countries. The European
someone might be con- nique called “pattern rec- Union is excluded, though;
templating suicide. ognition.” Facebook won’t say why.
Facebook already has For example, comments The company is also using
mechanisms for flagging from friends such as “are AI to prioritize the order
posts from people thinking you ok?” can indicate sui- that flagged posts are sent
In this April 18, 2017, file photo, conference workers speak in about harming themselves. cidal thoughts. to its human moderators so
front of a demo booth at Facebook’s annual F8 developer The new feature is intended Facebook has already they can quickly alert local
conference in San Jose, Calif. to detect such posts before been testing the feature authorities.q