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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

#341

Post by akerro »

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…

>trust a company with such personal information, and certainly I wouldn't either, but Uber as a company is very ethical and takes the responsibility that we are entrusted with very seriously.

HAHAHAHAHA Nice try!

> The ride-sharing company said that between July and December 2015, it had provided information on more than 12 million riders and drivers to various U.S. regulators and on 469 users to state and federal law agencies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/uber-customer-data-priva...

>the company's blog titled "Rides of Glory." The company examined its rider data, sorting it for anyone who took an Uber between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night. Then it looked at how many of those same people took another ride about four to six hours later – from at or near the previous nights' drop-off point. (...) Uber has deleted the blog post

http://www.marketplace.org/2014/11/18/business/final-note/ub...

>Earlier this month Angie Bird woke up at her home in London to discover she had been billed for a series of minicab journeys she had allegedly made the previous evening … in the Mexican cities of Guadalajara and Aguascalientes, more than 5,500 miles away.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/apr/22/uber-scam-hack...

>Uber is using GPS to punish drivers in China who get too close to protests

http://fusion.net/story/150389/uber-is-using-gps-to-punish-d...

>Study: Uber and Lyft have ‘pattern of discrimination’ against black passengers. Waiting times for black Seattle passengers were 35% longer, and Boston drivers cancelled rides for black passengers more than twice as frequently, study found

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/31/uber-lyft...

>According to internal Uber emails, the investigation began with a note from Uber’s general counsel, Sallie Yoo. The day that Schmidt filed the complaint against Kalanick, Yoo sent an email to Uber’s chief security officer, saying, "Could we find out a little more about this plaintiff?" The request was forwarded to the company’s head of Global Threat Intelligence, Mathew Henley.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/10/12127638/uber-ergo-investi...

>Uber as a company is very ethical and takes the responsibility that we are entrusted with very seriously

Please go with your bullshit somewhere else.

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

#342

Post by CaptainZapp »

baumant wrote: post #5

"Uber collects your location data from the time of trip request through five minutes after the trip ends, including when the app is in the background." From source listed in the article: https://help.uber.com/h/ba9dd342-158d-421f-a9ea-0e6c7aaad726

Well, so says Uber.

Unfortunately their history has proven to me that they're an utterly untrustworthy company and some lofty PR bullshit certainly won't change my opinion on them.

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

#343

Post by vmateixeira »

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…

> but Uber as a company is very ethical

If it wasn't for the apparent money laundry[1], drivers exploitation[2], cashing out on desperation[3], and tax evasion[4], maybe I could believe that.

[1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/uber-lose... (How can the company survive?)

[1]https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/search?q=uber (Closing and reopening with different names in the UK. Apparently 4? times so far... Hmm...)

[2]http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/5/4/1523310/-UBER-s-Shari...

[3]https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1805286/uber-accused-of-cashin...

[4]https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/20/uber-pays...

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

#344

Post by Ntrails »

kbart wrote: post #275
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…

"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…

> Probably every company has said that

Does your company have a set of values to which it says it holds itself and its employees? Excellent - lets play Enron Bingo! Go through your company values and every time one of them matches or strongly overlaps with the list provided in Enrons 1998 Annual Report[1] - Shout "WOOOO" really loudly.

[1] * - RESPECT - INTEGRITY - COMMUNICATION - EXCELLENCE

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

#345

Post by CaptainZapp »

bastawhiz wrote: post #96
ipqk wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in NYC with a lot of one-way streets, including my home. I actually use two different addresses for my home depending on whether I'm being picked-up or dropped-off. Otherwise, when being dropped off, Uber has sent me on some really odd detours just to get me exactly in front of my house. Instead, I'd rather get dropped off at a corner and walk 200 feet. In theory, by collecting the location data 5 minutes afte…

This is exactly the kind of application that the data is going to be used for.

Says Uber.

Unfortunately - based on their history - you're working for an utterly untrustworthy company, no matter the smiley face of nice they're trying to paint themselves nowadays.

This is not directed against you. I appreciate that you're hanging in here and participate in the discussion.

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

#346

Post by newscracker »

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.

> 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.

I find it quite disturbing to see ridiculous comments where one wrong is made right by pointing to other wrongs. We wouldn't need any laws or law enforcement if such logic were to be followed in every area of life.

"There are full body scanners at airports. Stop pretending that putting curtains at home is going to help."

"There are surveillance cameras in many places. Stop pretending that controlling the privacy of your personal photos really matters."

I'm sure I can imagine many other comebacks if I spend more time on this.

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

#347

Post by newscracker »

walterbell wrote: post #249
gchokov wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you not accept the update, when they do not even write release notes?

I've learned the hard way to time-delay app updates from over-reaching companies. A week or two is usually sufficient for major issues to surface on HN. You're right - it would be better if Apple allowed users to rollback to the N-1 version of an app. That would send a real-time signal from users to app vendors, rather than slow complaints via press and social media.

> it would be better if Apple allowed users to rollback to the N-1 version of an app.

Apple should allow users to revert to any older version. There are so many apps that become worse over time, and it's only after an update that the shortcomings are found, with no way to remedy the situation. But Apple really doesn't care about such things on the user experience front. I have provided Apple feedback on this before.

The thing I like in this case is that iOS explicitly warns the user when an app requests for location services permission for use while the app is not running.

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

#349

Post by pawadu »

vmateixeira wrote: post #343
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…

> but Uber as a company is very ethical If it wasn't for the apparent money laundry[1], drivers exploitation[2], cashing out on desperation[3], and tax evasion[4], maybe I could believe that. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/uber-lose... (How can the company survive?) [1] https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/search?q=uber (Closing and reopening with different names in the UK. Apparently 4? times s…

You forgot the best ones: using dirty tactics against journalists [1] and Lyft [2],

I don't understand how anyone can with a straight face claim that "Uber as a company is very ethical company". I would rank the company management (not drivers) as ethical as the New York mafia.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/an-uber-exec-brought-up-the-i...

[2] http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-re...

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

#350

Post by _pmf_ »

Ntrails wrote: post #344
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…

> Probably every company has said that Does your company have a set of values to which it says it holds itself and its employees? Excellent - lets play Enron Bingo ! Go through your company values and every time one of them matches or strongly overlaps with the list provided in Enrons 1998 Annual Report[1] - Shout "WOOOO" really loudly. [1] * - RESPECT - INTEGRITY - COMMUNICATION - EXCELLENCE

> Excellent - lets play Enron Bingo! Go through your company values and every time one of them matches or strongly overlaps with the list provided in Enrons 1998 Annual Report[1] - Shout "WOOOO" really loudly.

Now there are two people who insist on escorting me out of the building.

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