Apple CEO Reportedly Threatened To Kick Uber Off App Store For Spying On Users

Eric Lieberman

Technology,

RIP Uber? 

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly threatened to remove Uber from its App Store when he found out the company tracked customers’ whereabouts even after they deleted the app.

“So, I’ve heard you’ve been breaking some of our rules,” Cook calmly told Uber CEO Travis Kalanick during a 2015 meeting, according to Mike Isaac of The New York Times. Cook was unhappy with Kalanick for tracking customers by surreptitiously pinpointing and tagging iPhones even after the app was deleted.

Kalanick was reportedly unnerved, perhaps worried that his carefully crafted business could be completely upended if Cook cut off his access to millions of current and potential users.

(This first appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation site here.)  

“Travis’s biggest strength is that he will run through a wall to accomplish his goals,” said Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and occasional mentor of Kalanick, according to The NYT.

Uber, though, vehemently refutes that they are doing something illegal, immoral, or out of the ordinary.

“We absolutely do not track individual users or their location if they’ve deleted the app. As the New York Times story notes towards the very end, this is a typical way to prevent fraudsters from loading Uber onto a stolen phone, putting in a stolen credit card, taking an expensive ride and then wiping the phone—over and over again,” a representative for Uber told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Similar techniques are also used for detecting and blocking suspicious logins to protect our users’ accounts. Being able to recognize known bad actors when they try to get back onto our network is an important security measure for both Uber and our users.”