Uber Shares Ride Data to Get Law Enforcement on Its Side

“We’re here to help you understand the data that Uber holds,” said Nick Pailthorpe, a former investigator for the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police who now works for the ride-sharing company. On a cold January morning he was addressing detectives at Dutch national police headquarters in Utrecht. He was invited to speak by one of their colleagues, who got help from Uber Technologies Inc. in identifying a suspect’s IP address.

A dashboard-mounted smartphone displays Uber’s app in Frankfurt on April 12.

Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

The officers, department heads for cybersecurity teams across the Netherlands, meet monthly to discuss approaches to thwart cybercrime. Pailthorpe’s slideshow didn’t elicit much of a response until he explained how Uber ...