Lyft and Uber sexual assault data sharing aims to make services safer for women

A joint Lyft and Uber sexual assault data sharing initiative should make both services safer for women. It means that any driver deactivated from one platform should find themselves unable to work for the other …

The company made a joint announcement.

Today, Lyft and Uber announced the Industry Sharing Safety Program, a first-of-its-kind effort to share information about the drivers and delivery people deactivated from each company’s platform for the most serious safety incidents including sexual assault and physical assaults resulting in a fatality. 

The goal of the Program is to further enhance the safety of the entire ridesharing industry and equip companies with important safety information to protect their customers. Lyft and Uber will share information about driver deactivations related to the five most critical safety issues within the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s (NSVRC) Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence Taxonomy, along with physical assault fatalities.

The information sharing will be administered by HireRight, an industry-leading workforce solutions provider that will collect and manage the data from individual companies, match and share information between the companies, and ensure that each company is abiding by best practices and industry standards informed by sexual violence prevention experts and the NSVRC taxonomy. 

Both companies conduct criminal record checks on drivers before allowing them to begin work, but that doesn’t offer a complete solution as many incidents go unreported to the police.

“Sexual assault is drastically underreported, making these crimes less likely to show up in our rigorous background check and screening processes,” said Jennifer Brandenburger, Head of Policy Development at Lyft. “With the Industry Sharing Safety Program, Lyft and Uber are working together to further enhance our screening capabilities, as well as the safety of the entire rideshare industry.”

Safety should never be proprietary. You should be safe no matter what ridesharing platform you choose. We’re thrilled to come together with Lyft to improve safety for the entire industry,” said Tony West, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Uber. “Tackling these tough safety issues is bigger than any one of us and this new Industry Sharing Safety Program demonstrates the value of working collaboratively with experts, advocates and others to make a meaningful difference. We encourage more companies to join us.”

Campaign groups have welcomed the launch of the scheme, which will also be open to other transport and delivery companies operating within the US.

Uber’s own data revealed an alarmingly high number of sexual assaults in 2018.

The first-ever Uber safety report has revealed an alarming number of serious and fatal incidents in 2018. These include nine murders, 58 people killed in crashes, and 3,045 people sexually assaulted.

The company described the stats as “jarring and hard to digest,” and promised then to instigate the data-sharing scheme. Other Uber safety measures include in-app panic buttons and in-car audio and video recordings.

Via Business Insider. Photo by Phil Desforges on Unsplash.