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Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

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Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#311

Post by abduhl »

employee8000 wrote: post #303
mfrommil wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling bs on "uber as a company is very ethical" and "nothing nefarious is going on": Spying on a journalist: http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-new-york-manager-invest... Tracking celebrities and sharing publicly: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-...

Both articles from 2014. Uber 2014 and Uber 2016 are different companies, probably 5x the number of employees and has matured substantially especially with employee conduct expectations. I would be shocked and angry if something like that happened today.

Have personnel changes happened at the highest levels of the organization since 2014? The abuse discussed in the links came down from the top ranks of Uber.

When did you join Uber? If it was not prior to 2014, what makes you an expert on how the company had mature and, if prior to 2014, why were you not shocked and angry when these events occurred in 2014?

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#312

Post by pg314 »

bastawhiz wrote: post #244
phs318u wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, I just want to take the opportunity to thank you for sticking around and taking part in the conversation. While my own thoughts lie mostly with the other respondents in this thread, it's critical that we have channels somewhere in-between "press release" and "Wikileaks" for getting some insight into the workings of companies like Uber. Having said all that, it's still creepy. And the examples you gave (Googl…

I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing the issue, when I say this, because I respect the sentiments expressed here greatly. But there's a very strong stigma around collection of location data, more so than other forms of more sensitive information. Almost every credit card company, bank, insurance company, and more share your every purchase. What you buy, what you eat, how you live. As far as the sensitivity of da…

Some people do have things to hide: they are having affairs, visiting prostitutes, going to Planned Parenthood to have an abortion, going to a cancer center to get treatment,...

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#313

Post by iamdave »

employee8000 wrote: post #303
mfrommil wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling bs on "uber as a company is very ethical" and "nothing nefarious is going on": Spying on a journalist: http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-new-york-manager-invest... Tracking celebrities and sharing publicly: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-...

Both articles from 2014. Uber 2014 and Uber 2016 are different companies, probably 5x the number of employees and has matured substantially especially with employee conduct expectations. I would be shocked and angry if something like that happened today.

Uber 2014 and Uber 2016 are different companies

What are you basing this on and point me to supporting evidence of this, failing that I need something more convincing than increased headcount as a motivator to give Uber my trust as a consumer again.

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#314

Post by chirau »

employee8000 wrote: post #234
yladiz wrote: post #34

I saw this earlier and had hopes that the update would just let me choose "While Using" in the app settings, like some other apps allow you even if they request access even while not using the app, but the settings only allow for "Always" or "Never" on iPhone. However, you can use Uber without allowing GPS, so it's not all or nothing. I'm a little disturbed that they need any information after I use Uber though. They…

Uber employee here. We were told the reason to track up to 5 mins after the trip is for fraud, ex if a driver doesn't end the trip when she is supposed to. and to figure out where the pick up spots for each address are. A large building may have multiple points where people get picked up or dropped off and knowing those points would be very useful for the drivers and riders. And just as a side note, take it with a fe…

as a fun exercise... I am going to find out how many employees Uber has. From there, who knows. Lol.

#username_might_check_out

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#315

Post by steveax »

employee8000 wrote: post #247
dimino wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but Uber as a company is very ethical You've got to understand how directly this clashes with the media coverage re: driver rights.

Yes and as an employee looking from the inside out, I see how negative the press is, and before I joined Uber I was biased by the media coverage as well. But everything I've seen on the inside directly goes against the media coverage I've seen. Take it with a grain of salt obviously.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” --Upton Sinclair

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#316

Post by swyman »

orange_county wrote: post #309
nojvek wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's the same company that creepily gives me a code interview in the app because it knows I go to a software company couple of times a week and pushes a job ad. Uber has a lot of sensitive information regarding users. Who goes where and when. This in the wrong hand can be very disastrous. E.g Trump to Uber: "gimme list of all people who to to mosques frequently. No tax for you." Uber: "Here you go. Just don't te…

How come no one is throwing fuss about this for Google's foobar challenge? This is the same exact thing. In today's time, we give up privacy for convenience. If you use a smart phone, Facebook, windows/google anything you are already giving up privacy. Stop pretending that 5 mins location monitoring is a big deal.

Stop pretending people can't decide for themselves how much privacy they want and from whom

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#317

Post by swyman »

bastawhiz wrote: post #198
rm999 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber's infrastructure is completely incapable of handling that volume of data, The data volume isn't very big. Let's assume Uber records locations for 20 million users and pings each user every 5 minutes. We're talking about 20 million users * 12 events per hour * 24 hours * 16 bytes (my generous assumption of how much it would cost to store a user id, timestamp, and precise long/lat data) = ~100 GB a day or 3 TB a…

Being a bug, though, it would record with the fidelity of the Uber app. Which is a lot more than every five minutes.

You're not doing yourself any favors here. People say they don't trust your company because of past behavior of the company itself and history of even ethical companies being bought or changing priorities, and you just keep pushing me further and further toward Lyft or my bike.

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#318

Post by swyman »

uiuiuop wrote: post #256
yladiz wrote: post #34

I saw this earlier and had hopes that the update would just let me choose "While Using" in the app settings, like some other apps allow you even if they request access even while not using the app, but the settings only allow for "Always" or "Never" on iPhone. However, you can use Uber without allowing GPS, so it's not all or nothing. I'm a little disturbed that they need any information after I use Uber though. They…

> why do they need to know where I'm at after I get dropped off? In China, there's a company that provides a free loyalty point program. The store signs up for it, and users download the app and can use it to collect points when a transaction is made at the store. The points can then be exchanged for discounts and other stuff. All of this is free. How they make money is by selling the user behavior data. One of the f…

That's all well and good, but I'm turning off Uber's access to my GPS entirely.

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#319

Post by Steeeve »

a3_nm wrote: post #267
Steeeve wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprise. If you have an AT&T Samsung phone you can't uninstall it. The best you can do is go into Application Settings and Disable it. And then make sure you answer the two confirmation dialogs correctly for it to actually get disabled. And guess what? It's already running. Even if you haven't used the app any time recently.

> Surprise. If you have an AT&T Samsung phone you can't uninstall it. Can't you flash the ROM to reinstall Android (e.g., Cyanogen) without any built-ins of this kind?

Sure. If you're a techie that doesn't have a work provided phone with restrictions from doing so.

Re: Uber Now Tracks Passengers’ Locations Even After They’re Dropped Off

#320

Post by kbart »

dx034 wrote: post #301
kbart wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Uber as a company is very ethical and takes the responsibility that we are entrusted with very seriously." Probably every company has said that, yet we know how that usually turns out sooner rather than later (I'm looking at you, WhatsApp). "So I know it's not easy to believe, and it's easy for me to say since I work here, but nothing nefarious is going on. If there was, we the engineers would be against it complete…

Whatsapp was ethical, the problem is with the company that bought them. And they didn't necessarily know that when they sold (even if, an offer of that size is hard to decline).

That's exactly my point. If company is ethical today, it doesn't mean it will be tomorrow, for whatever reasons.
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