Uber Inc. has been bedeviled by privacy concerns following revelations about its “God View” tool that grants employees access to users’ personal data. Although Uber tried to persuade its customers it can be trusted by publishing its privacy policy on its blog last month, there seems to be just no end to the negative press.

In the most recent backlash, The Washington Post has revealed than an unnamed job applicant at Uber – not an employee – was given full access to the company’s database for “several hours” after the interview had concluded.

According to the job applicant, he was able to pull up the records of several well known Uber customers, including one “prominent politician”, before access was cut off.

The incident caps a month Uber executives would just as soon forget. Although the company continues to rake in venture capital, it has been distracted by concerns over its apparent disregard for customer privacy and threats to “dig up dirt” on journalists critical of the company. Those reports prompted Senator Al Franken to write an open letter to Uber, criticizing it for its “troubling disregard for customers’ privacy, including the need to protect their sensitive geolocation data.”

Uber responded by releasing the following statement about its impact:

“Our data privacy policy applies to all employees: access to and use of data is permitted only for legitimate business purposes. Data security specialists monitor and audit that access on an ongoing basis. Violations of this policy do result in disciplinary action, including the possibility of termination and legal action.”

The statement is so vague as to be all but meaningless. Moreover, the company has never said it anonymizes its data, just that it monitors employee use. That may not be good enough to quell the controversy.

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