Uber and Lyft climb services team up to ensure that crawlers that have been taken down from their platforms stay out of their platforms.
The two announced a partnership Thursday together with the background control company HireRight to create a database of drivers who have been disabled for serious crime, including physical and sexual assault, as part of their new security program for sharing the industry. Passenger safety concerns have haunted Uber and Lyft for years, along with dozens of complaints and lawsuits that companies have failed. suitable screen drivers and prohibits those with multiple strikes for breaking the rules.
The program is initially launched in the US, and other delivery and delivery services will be able to continue to join the data sharing system, as long as they agree and comply with the same privacy guarantees as Uber and Lyft.
“You should be safe no matter what ridesharing platform you choose,” said Tony West. a press release. “Addressing these tough security issues is greater than any of us, and this new industry-sharing program demonstrates the value of working with experts, lawyers and others to make a meaningful difference. We encourage more companies to join us. ”
Drivers for travel services like Uber and Lyft are for the most part consider independent contractors, not employees, ie them maybe and often leads for both companies.
G / O Media may receive a commission
A third party, HireRight, will collect and manage all data shared between these companies and ensure that all parties comply with industry standards highlighted by National Resource Center for Sexual Violence. On Associated Press, information about victims will not be distributed in the database, and the incidents that led to the dismissal of the driver are divided into six main categories: attempted non-consensual sexual penetration; non-consensual touching of a sexual part of the body; non-consensual kissing of a sexual part of the body; non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual part of the body; non-consensual sexual penetration; and fatal physical assaults.
“We share the basis for deactivation, as well as identifying driver information just so other companies can find that person on their platform, nothing else,” West said in an interview with NBC.
Incidents of sexual assault and harassment are notorious underreported for the police, which makes the signaling of dangerous drivers particularly important, as they can slip under the radar with traditional background checks that are often based on legal files. The nonprofit rights group, the National Rape, Abuse and Incest Network, which previously criticized Uber and Lyft for their lack of rigorous driver control processes, congratulated the companies for coming together in the name of passenger safety.
“Sexual violence thrives in secret,” Scott Berkowitz, the group’s president and founder, said in a press release. “Thanks to this initiative, the perpetrators will no longer be able to hide or escape responsibility by simply changing the sharing platforms.”
Both Uber and Lyft have launched a number of safety features in recent years, including in-app panic buttons and additional ways for passengers to check their drivers. But critics say these precautions are long overdue. In 2018, CNN found that 103 Uber drivers and 18 Lyft drivers have been charged with sexual assault or abuse in the past four years. In the company the first safety report, Uber revealed that it received 3,045 reports of sexual assault during travel in 2018. In the same year, nine people were killed and 58 killed in car accidents. Lyft has also amassed several lawsuits from women handling sexual assault complaints and allegations that he did not do enough protects passengers from dangerous drivers.