Uber stole trade secrets, bribed foreign officials and spied on rivals, filing says

Uber allegedly engaged in a range of "unethical and unlawful intelligence collections", including the theft of competitive trade secrets, bribery of foreign officials and spying on competitors and politicians, according to an explosive legal document published on Friday. It's the latest chapter in the discovery process for the company's messy legal squabble with Waymo, Google's driverless car spin-off, which has accused Uber of stealing trade secrets. The details were outlined in a 37-page demand letter filed by the ex-Uber security manager Richard Jacobs, who left the company earlier this year. The document paints a picture of a team of employees dedicated to spying on rivals and "impeding" legal investigations into the company. Jacobs alleges that when he raised concerns over the techniques being used, he was given a poor performance review and demoted as "pure retaliation" for refusing to buy into the culture of "achieving business goals through illegal conduct even though equally aggressive legal means were available".