A still unidentified French businessman has filed a lawsuit blaming Uber for allegedly causing his divorce. He is demanding that the ride-hailing company cough up €45 million or around $48 million as reparation for his troubles.
Reports revealed that the plaintiff, who lives in Southern France, used his wife's iPhone to order an Uber service when meeting his lover. To cover his tracks, he signed off of the app before handing the device back.
Uber Notification Bug
Unfortunately, there appeared to be a notification bug in the app that, despite his being signed out, allowed it to keep on receiving notifications related to his account. Naturally, it gave his wife the ability to check his comings and goings every time he used Uber's service.
While the said app was not able to provide real-time tracking, it still sent the Frenchman's wife plenty of information to determine whether he is lying or not.
For example, if the cheating husband called home saying he will be working late on a particular day, the wife will inevitably learn of the lie if he has spent his evening on an Uber ride, meeting his mistress instead.
One should remember that the Uber notification allowed the recipient to know specific details about an Uber order such as the name of the Uber driver, the car's plate number as well as the time of arrival.
An iPhone-Only Problem
The bug cited in the lawsuit only involved Uber's app for the iPhone. It was also older and is said to have been fixed by an Uber update released last Dec. 15.
French newspaper Le Figaro sought to authenticate the glitch and found that the notification issue was indeed true. Its report identified the mismanagement of the so-called tokens as the culprit behind the bug. The Uber app is supposed to revoke these upon sign out.
Android devices are reportedly not affected by the issue and this includes those installed with the older versions of the Uber app.
"My client was the victim of a bug in an application," David-André Darmon, the lawyer representing the cheating businessman said."The bug has caused him problems in his private life."
Darmon did not explain why they are asking for an incredible sum of money from Uber. The ride-hailing company is also not helping in this respect as it chose to remain silent save for a statement that stressed how it is the company's policy not to comment on individual cases. The company pointed out, however, that it is committed to protecting the personal data of its users.
Parties to the lawsuit, which has been filed in Grasse, are expected to begin their legal tussle next month. Uber has previously sustained setbacks in its brush with the French legal system.
