Unionised drivers call on Microsoft to suspend Uber’s Face API licences

Commenting on the union’s allegations, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company was “committed to testing and improving Face API, paying special attention to fairness and its accuracy across demographic groups”.

“We also provide our customers with detailed guidance for getting the best results and tools that help them to assess fairness in their system.”

An Uber spokesperson added the system was designed to protect the safety and security of passengers by ensuring the correct driver or courier is using the account.

“While no tech or process is perfect and there is always room for improvement, we believe the technology, combined with the thorough process in place to ensure a minimum of two manual human reviews prior to any decision to remove a driver, is fair and important for the safety of our platform,” they said.

In March 2021, during legal proceedings where drivers were seeking greater access to their personal data following account deactivations by Uber, a Dutch court ruled that while there was enough human intervention to find the firm’s decisions were not completely automated, it would still have to give two drivers accused of “fraudulent activity” access to the data it used to make the decisions.

The ADCU has written to the Mayor of London to demand that all TfL private hire driver licence revocations based on evidence produced by Uber’s identification systems are immediately reviewed.

The union further claimed Uber rushed to implement the identification system in a bid to win back its London operating licence after TfL decided in late 2019 that it would not be renewed over problems with unauthorised drivers using the platform.

Evidence given to the regulator by Uber during its licensing appeal in September 2020 showed that, because of failures in the company’s manual identification process, it had started to roll out the Real-Time ID Check system from April 2020 onwards.

“TfL has taken an active interest in [Uber’s] proposals with regard to this product. There are clear benefits to the product and TfL supports any technology which increases passenger safety by ensuring the driver is licensed by TfL and permitted to use the Uber app,” wrote TfL’s director of licensing, regulation and charging, Helen Chapman, in her witness statement.

She added that TfL had received a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the system from Uber in March 2020.

“I consider the use of this product a step in the right direction, although clearly its implementation is still at a very early stage. I therefore cannot meaningfully comment on the effectiveness of it at this stage,” said Chapman.

James Farrar, director of WIE and co-founder of the ADCU, said there was a “surveillance tech arms race in the gig economy”, driven in part by platforms’ attempts to move to “more hidden forms of algorithmic control” and in part by pressure from regulators like TfL.

“Uber has rushed to implement a flawed facial recognition system provided by Microsoft and uses it against a 70,000-strong workforce it is already well known for exploiting, but without the appropriate safeguards in place,” he said. “Microsoft must have no truck with Uber’s exploitation of vulnerable workers [and] must suspend Uber’s licence to use this solution immediately.”