Uber used a technology feature nicknamed “Greyball” that identified regulators posing as passengers while trying to collect evidence that Uber was breaking local laws governing taxis. The program was a fake version of Uber’s app and made it appear that the undercover regulator was summoning a car, only to have the ride never show up or cancel, AP rreported in March. After the New York Times reported the existence of Greyball, Uber said it was dismantling the technology.
European Union antitrust regulators fined Facebook $122 million in March for giving misleading information during a vetting of its deal to acquire messaging service WhatsApp in 2014, Reuters reported.
Facebook had said it could not automatically match user accounts on its own platform and WhatsApp, but two years later launched a service that did exactly that.
“The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook’s statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users’ identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility,” the Commission said.
Facebook said it made an unintentional mistake in its 2014 filings.
The E.U. sanction followed a separate 150,000-euro fine by a French data watchdog for failing to prevent its users’ data from being accessed by advertisers. Italian antitrust authorities fined WhatsApp 3 million euros for allegedly obliging users to agree to share their personal data with Facebook.
