UBER drivers are launching international legal action against the company in a bid to demand back their data. 

The “unprecedented” legal challenge will target the firm’s use of data-fuelled algorithms that dictate how drivers work. 

The drivers claim that Uber is in breach of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules by withholding their data. 

The legal bid, filed today, is supported by the International Alliance of App-based Transport Workers, Worker Info Exchange and the App Drivers & Couriers Union.

They accuse Uber of using drivers’ data to create secret profiles that include work-based performance tags such as late arrival, cancellation rates, attitudes and behavioural notes. 

“This runs contrary to Uber’s insistence in many employment misclassification legal challenges across multiple jurisdictions worldwide that drivers are self-employed and not subject to management control,” the complaint says.

Without the knowledge of how this data is used, the union claims that potential unfair or discriminatory practices may be going ahead unchecked. 

James Farrar, director of Worker Info Exchange, a non-profit organisation that helps workers access data collected by their employers, said: “Uber has deliberately blocked the efforts of drivers to access their data for the purposes of establishing a data trust. 

“This is not only a violation of the law but a terrible abuse of Uber’s position of informational power over drivers. Drivers suffer not only wage theft but data theft too.”

The drivers are calling for the creation of a “data trust” in which information collected by Uber on drivers can be accessed by their unions.

They will also ask the district court in Amsterdam, where Uber’s subsidiary that controls driver data is based, to fine the firm €10,000 (£9,045) for every day it allegedly does not comply with GDPR rules. 

Uber was contacted for comment.