Lyft, a ride-sharing Line service is currently carrying out an investigation on a tip raised by an anonymous user on the app Blind, stating that Lyft employees misused their privileges of having unhindered access to customers Database. The whistle-blower, a self acclaimed former Lyft employee, cited scenarios where it's colleagues would sniff into and boast of accessing customers personal information such as that of Mark Zuckerberg's phone number including those of Hollywood actresses. The employees would also secretly follow charming people they came across in their taxis in the course of boarding. The anonymous user implied that this has gone unrestricted for a considerable length of time.
A Lyft official affirmed speculation that the company is looking into this absurd and immoral events being perpetuated by their employees. we are kept in the know, about security measures already in place to curtail incidences like this. They include; queries seeking permission to view users information are automatically logged and linked to a particular employee, employees are trained in data privacy and responsible use policy, and are also mandatorily made to sign "confidentiality" and "responsible use" agreements preventing them from accessing and revealing customer information to any third party. All these done as a whole to make them more responsible with users data.
There were occurrences of this nature which took place in the past, like that of uber which treadled this same path by granting its staffs unmoderated access to its user database in its 'God View' program. They, however succumbed to a $20,000 fine by the Attorney General's office in New York.