Latest bad news for Uber shows just how far it's willing to go to get its way

Washington

UBER, the ride-hailing service that has become one of the tech industry's most emulated companies, has smashed into a painful wall of reality in recent weeks, capped by a report Friday that the company has taken extraordinary measures to evade government officials in areas where the service was restricted or banned.

The revelation, which Uber did not dispute in a statement, follows high-profile allegations of sexual harassment, questions about customer privacy and a "#deleteUber" campaign on Twitter, sparked by accusations that the company was not respecting a driver strike at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City in January.

The company, based in San Francisco, was founded in 2009 and operates in hundreds of cities in dozens of nations, though many city governments in the U…