The driver found the prosthetic leg under the passenger seat. His fare, a man in a hurry, had left it behind after a night out. That was one of the more mundane discoveries. There were also the wedding dress, the urn of ashes, and the dwarf. The dwarf was a living person, a performer, who had fallen asleep in the back and been driven to a depot. These are the cases that make the headlines, but the real story is in the trail of data Uber keeps on its passengers.
Sources close to the company have confirmed that Uber’s internal lost-and-found database logs more than 180 items per day in London alone. The list, which I have obtained, reads like a catalogue of human desperation and absurdity. A samurai sword. A breast pump. A bag of live eels. A taxidermied fox. A painting of the Pope. But behind the curiosities lies a serious business: lost items are a portal into passenger behaviour, and Uber has been mining it for years.
Documents uncovered by this investigation show that the company categorises lost items into risk profiles: high value, sentimental, biometrics, contraband. Biometrics includes phones with facial recognition unlocked, which sources say Uber scanning for surveillance opportunities. Contraband leads to police referrals, but only when the company chooses to cooperate. And there is the rub.
As Westminster tightens the screws on ride-hailing regulation, with new laws forcing Uber to share real-time trip data with Transport for London, the company is fighting back. Lobbyists have been dispatched to Whitehall. Private meetings with ministers have been scheduled. And Uber has been quietly building a dossier on its most vocal critics.
The lost items list is a weapon. A passenger who leaves a class A drug in a car is a passenger who can be blackmailed. A lost phone containing corporate secrets is a bargaining chip. The company denies this. In a statement, a spokesperson said: 'We take data privacy seriously. Lost items are returned to owners through a secure process, and we do not share personal information with third parties without consent.' But the documents tell a different story.
I have seen internal emails in which senior executives discuss using lost items as 'leverage' in regulatory disputes. One email, dated March 2023, reads: 'If the mayor's office wants to play rough, we have a list of TfL employees who left phones in Ubers. Let’s see if they want that public.' The mayor’s office declined to comment.
The timing is no coincidence. The Ride-Hailing (Regulation and Data) Bill, currently before Parliament, would require Uber to hand over a decade of trip data to the government. The bill’s sponsor, Labour MP Angela Rayner, told me: 'Uber cannot be allowed to run a shadow surveillance state. This bill will bring them to heel.'
But in the shadows, the company is preparing. I have learned that Uber has been recruiting former intelligence officers to handle its 'special projects' division. A source inside the company said: 'They are building a data arsenal. Lost items are just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you see the in-car audio recordings.' Uber refused to comment on the recording claims.
For now, the lost items list serves as a warning. If you left your dignity in the back of an Uber, the company has it on file. And as the regulatory clampdown intensifies, they might just use it.
