Uber sued by rape victim for invasion of privacy and character defamation

On Thursday, a woman raped by an Uber driver in India filed a lawsuit in a federal court in San Francisco accusing the ride-hailing service of defaming her character and invading her privacy. The lady, named by the court papers as Jane Doe, is a resident of Texas and the case between her and Uber had been settled at an earlier date with the driver being sentenced to a jail term.

Jane Doe filed the new case after the firing of one of Uber’s executives, Eric Alexander. Alexander had read and discussed the medical records of the rape victim. According to the court filing of the case in question, Alexander, along with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Emil Michael (a former senior vice president) are named as defendants in the case.

This was not the first time Emil Michael was getting herself in trouble in her position as a senior executive at Uber. Several company malpractices had been linked to her including trying to dig up defaming information on journalists.

In a revelation of how pretentious Uber had become in handling the rape case, lawyers revealed that the company had condemned the case in public while privately speculating that it could be the work of a rival firm. The company even issued a statement saying that

“No one should have to go through a horrific experience like this, and we’re truly sorry that she’s had to relive it over the last few weeks.”

The lawsuit in question is aimed at establishing whether Uber violated the privacy of Jane Doe and defamed her in any way. If found guilty, Uber will be required to pay her damages.

Uber has been in the news severally for the wrong reasons mainly due to its no-holds-barred approach to management. Besides trouble from the users of its services, the company has come under fire and in conflict with other firms such as Apple who found out that Uber was tracking iPhone users who used its services. At the forefront of this controversial leadership was the chief executive Travis Kalanick.