The Indian Air Force (IAF), Navy and Coast Guard are in the process of scrapping individual contracts with Uber to ferry their serving and retired personnel. The move follows security scare flagged during a news podcast which was further amplified due to strong reactions from the public over social media platforms.
Reacting over the possibility of scrapping the mobility agreement inked since last year with the forces, an Uber spokesperson told businessline: “We stand ready to discuss our data-security practices in detail should they choose to reconsider.”
“Uber has rigorous safeguards in place to prevent the loss, unauthorised use or disclosure of personal data. Over the past 10 years, millions of Indians have trusted Uber with their data, and we are committed to always honouring that trust,” the cab aggregator’s spokesperson said.
Sources said that the armed forces have begun the process of termination of individual contracts.
While the Indian Navy was the first to sign and announce a deal with US-based aggregator on September 11, 2023 for the mobility solution, the Coast Guard soon followed by making it official on December 22, same year. The IAF signed the deal on October 18, 2024. The services said that the separate agreements were for providing reliable, convenient and safe transportation of their personal, veterans and their families.
However, there was no official response from the three services on this issue.
The rethinking of the transport arrangement follows Deputy Army Chief Lieutenant General Raja Subramani’s strong defence of the Navy and the Air Force’s decision-making process, while it was being attacked during the media podcast that started the controversy.
Unlike the other services, the Indian Army had not signed the contract.
After the criticism through a podcast by a news agency, the IAF removed its social media post on Uber being its preferred mobility partner for commuting.
Abhijit Iyer Mitra, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, on Friday posted on social media platform X thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh “for acting so swiftly within 48 hours” on a host of cybersecurity issues, including on the armed forces partnering with Uber for transportation.
Mitra said he had flagged these issues in his letter to the Defence Minister which he tagged with his post on X.
“On 5 November, I delivered the following letter to the Defence Minister regarding the cavalier attitude of the armed forces to cybersecurity. I have blanked out the sensitive imagery. My personal thanks to Rajnath Ji & Modi Ji for acting so swiftly within 48 hours,” he wrote on X.
Global fear of eavesdropping and supply chain poisoning have heightened following Israelis effectively using technology to carry out blasts through pagers and walkie-talkies for targeting the Hezbollah leadership.