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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

#321

Post by BinaryIdiot »

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.

Hmm I got the Uber challenge quite frequently but I've never gotten this Google one. How do I find this?

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

#322

Post by kbart »

AliAdams wrote: post #300
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…

I thought the drop-off points for large buildings could be a very reasonable justification for extending the tracking window for a few minutes on either side of the drive. I understand that this could fall into 'data necessary to provide a better service' as opposed to simply providing the service as-is, but it seems like drop-off point locations are quite fundamental.

Why do you imply that I go inside the building I asked Uber driver to stop by? Actually, most of the time I get out on the corner and walk to my destination (which address I did not provide to Uber), because of traffic restrictions in city center.

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

#323

Post by stephenr »

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).

I call bullshit on not knowing that Facebook is a privacy whoring company before WhatsApp sold to them.

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

#324

Post by stephenr »

mfrommil wrote: post #292
employee8000 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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-...

Didn't Uber also do tracking of user battery and establish that they can charge more, more reliably when the user has low battery?

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

#326

Post by julochrobak »

The situation is getting serious in general. There are many many apps that people use daily. How can one find out what data is being collected per application? It would be really nice to a have a web site where the community (technical people who can inspect the apps) could maintain this information per application and a user could see a simple green/red bullets and decide whether the app is worth it or not. Really, really high level, designed for end-user (non-technical).

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

#327

Post by hutattedonmyarm »

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…

> 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.

You can force quit the app after using it, so it doesn't get GPS access. "Always" only grants access while the app is open in the background (of foreground of course). Not pretty, but a workaround.

> (as far as I know you only can see that some app is accessing your GPS currently, not which one(s) exactly

Don't have my phone set to English, so wording might be slightly off. Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services. A purple arrow means the app used GPS "recently" (so a few minutes ago)

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

#329

Post by bad_user »

I actually noticed this - iOS has this nice feature of giving warnings like "Uber has been tracking your location", which was a WTF moment for me because I haven't used Uber that day at all. So in response I've cut its location access completely.

I've also had a similar experience with Waze. WTF are these apps doing with my location while I'm not using them?

Btw, for all the badmouthing I've given Apple and iOS over the years, this is one feature of iOS that I like. But I would have preferred the option to force location tracking only while using the app.

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

#330

Post by ricardobeat »

bastawhiz wrote: post #276
newman314 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, why isn't there an option to delete previous trip data? If Uber was really serious about user privacy, this would be a no brainer feature to offer.

It's not just your trip data, it's also your driver's. It would be wrong to allow you to delete the record of the trip. It's also the case that the record of your trip isn't just data. It's the receipt for an actual thing that happened. A transaction between three or more parties takes place. That data needs to be preserved for any number of the reasons, including government compliance. Even just handling credit card…

If one side deletes the trip data, you can anonymise it, destroying all possible references to that user ID. The driver still has his history.

A receipt is a proof of transaction and completely separate from whatever data you collected about your customers, your statement makes little sense. That it facilitates disputes doesn't change the nature of data privacy, it is just convenient for you and the bank.

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