Skip to main content

Man Ubered to Cheat on Wife, Sues Uber for His Divorce

By Christopher Coble, Esq. on February 16, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

"My client was the victim of a bug in an application. The bug has caused him problems in his private life." While probably true, these are most likely not the words that are going to save your marriage. Also generally not a winning legal argument, but you can always try.

Those are the words of one man's lawyer, after his client's wife kept getting Uber alerts on her phone about his whereabouts. Apparently she was less than pleased with those whereabouts, and the two have divorced. Now he's suing Uber for almost $50 million over the glitch.

Buggy Relationship

The trouble all started when the former husband requested an Uber from his then-wife's phone. Although he later logged out of the app, her iPhone continued getting updates on his Uber habits, including ride times and location data. As the two have since divorced, it's obvious the former wife was not happy with what she learned.

The man's lawyer has not revealed his client's identity, saying only that he wished to remain discreet and anonymous. Given his history, we can see the desire for discretion, but we're not sure a near-$50 million lawsuit against one of the world's biggest companies is "discreet."

Fix the Glitch

The assessment of the glitch, on the other hand, is spot-on. French newspaper Le Figaro decided to test the man's claims, and logged in and out of Uber on one iPhone and then logged in on another. The app indeed sent screen notifications about new orders to both phones. Apparently the glitch only affected iPhones, and only until a software update in December.

Per the BBC, Uber declined to comment on the case but did say that the best possible protection of their users' personal details was a priority. So while the man certainly was the victim of a bug in Uber's app, we're not sure it was the app itself that caused him problems in his private life."

Related Resources:

Copied to clipboard