Quote of the Day: Uber Intelligence Ops

[timelets]

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4330118/Jacobs-Letter-Uber.pdf

Henley and Clark implemented this program of ephemeral and encrypted communications for the express purpose of destroying evidence of illegal or unethical practices to avoid discovery in actual or potential litigation. The Wickr application uses robust encryption which prevents the information from being viewed by anyone except the intended recipient, but more importantly, programs messages to self-destruct in a matter of seconds to no longer than six days. Consequently, Uber employees cannot be compelled to produce records of their chat conversations because no record is retained.
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By storing this data on non-attributable devices, Uber believed it would avoid detection and never be subject to legal discovery. This is because a standard preservation of evidence order typically focused on Uber work laptops, Uber networks, and Uber mobile devices. Non- attributable devices were deemed as not reasonably subsumed by any such preservation order and the team could, and did, "legally" (not so) dispose of any evidence or documentation held on these devices in the intervening period before knowledge of the devices' existence could be uncovered.
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Clark said that Uber needed to "shroud these work products in attorney-client privilege." Accordingly, Clark instructed Jacobs himself and others to address all emails on sensitive intelligence collection to him and ensure the emails were marked as "ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL," to mark any work product as "DRAFT" regardless of its actual status, and, on every communication, to specifically ask a question or request legal advice on some issue-even if no legal advice was needed or warranted. Likewise, he advised that Jacobs and others that they should communicate almost exclusively via phone, video teleconference ("Zoom"), or via the Wickr app, in that order of preference based on the record and audit trail each communications medium creates. Clark explained that the intent was to prevent disclosure of such communications if Jacobs was ever put on legal hold or his communications were ever subject to a preservation of evidence order.