Lyft investigates claim that employee improperly accessed Mark Zuckerberg's account

An anonymous "current or former Lyft employee" has alleged online that his or her colleagues had improperly accessed the ride history and account details of romantic partners, various celebrities, and, yes, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

So reports The Information, which broke the story Thursday afternoon. Lyft, for its part, is taking this claim seriously enough that it has launched an internal investigation.

"The specific allegations in this post would be a violation of Lyft’s policies and a cause for termination, and have not been raised with our Legal or Executive teams," noted a Lyft spokesperson over email. "We are conducting an investigation into the matter." 

This would not be the first time a ride-hail employee has been accused of impropriety. In 2016, a former Uber forensic investigator claimed employees had at various points used sensitive information to "track high profile politicians, celebrities and even personal acquaintances of Uber employees, including ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, and ex-spouses."

Having seen that scandal go down at a competitor, how could Lyft possibly allow the same thing to happen on its watch? It's apparently not for lack of trying to prevent it. "Access to data is restricted to certain teams that need it to do their jobs," the Lyft spokesperson further explained. "For those teams, each query is logged and attributed to a specific individual. We require employees to be trained in our data privacy practices and responsible use policy, which categorically prohibit accessing and using customer data for reasons other than those required by their specific role at the company."

So, assuming the anonymous claim made online has merit (which is a big assumption), Lyft should theoretically be able to track down the person spying on Zuckerberg's account. But hey, maybe he won't mind so much. After all, he's not really one for privacy.

It's the other alleged abuses — spying on romantic partners, for example — that really freak us out and speak to a potentially larger pattern of abuse at the company.

Hopefully Lyft gets to the bottom of this soon, and comes clean with what its investigation turns up. It's going to need to do so if we are ever going to trust the company again.