Current and former Uber security staffers cast doubt on spying claims

An Uber Technologies Inc. ride-hailing service smartphone app displays a road map in this arranged photograph at a taxi rank in London, U.K., on Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. Uber will be regulated in European Union countries as a transport company after the bloc's top court rejected its claim to be a digital service provider, a decision that could increase legal risks for other gig-economy companies including Airbnb. Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

SAN FRANCISCO: The former security chief of Uber Technologies Inc swore in a closed legal proceeding that he knew of no attempts to steal trade secrets from anyone, including Alphabet Inc's self-driving unit Waymo, and would be "shocked" if that had occurred. 

In a deposition taken in mid-December near San Francisco, Joe Sullivan, Uber's security chief from 2015 to 2017, said that the most explosive claims made by another former Uber employee of unethical and illegal behaviour by members of his security team were false.