Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 500 posts

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

#401

Post by buro9 »

skeptic2718 wrote: post #397
buro9 wrote: post #395

For Uber and UberEats I now manually manage these in Android (which I do for a few other apps I have lower trust for). Which means I shut off all permissions between uses, and I block all notifications. I grant Location, only as needed to get a driver or place an order. Once I'm in the car, I turn airplane mode on, deny all permissions and notifications, and I reboot the phone. Isn't it crazy that this is where we ar…

No taxis in your area? Maybe a central phone number you can call to hail one? Why Uber and all this trouble?

I'm in London, and public transport is good enough for most journeys, and I loathe black cabs far more than I feel anything (except distrust) about Uber.

Uber works wherever I am in London, it's cheap enough (realistic compared to black cabs).

It's good enough, but not good enough that I'm fine with their various invasive activities. One not mentioned elsewhere is how they use both rider and driver mobiles as a kind of distributed cache/database. Which is the thing that started me off on "kill the background process", initially to spare my own data and battery.

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

#402

Post by SixSigma »

newscracker wrote: post #336
dx034 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

[Harsh words ahead] Hindsight is 20/20, and based on that I personally would say WhatsApp was not ethical even when it was a standalone company. If it had been so, it wouldn't have allowed Facebook to acquire it in the first place! I realize this sounds harsh and probably implies bad motives on the owners, but whatever WhatsApp wrote in its blogs pre-acquisition were all principles that could be sold at the right pri…

You don't need hindsight. You just need to look at the many many times it has happened before.

Cash pressure + lots of valuable assets liquidised legally that just require a change to ToS = said assets for sale + temporary bad PR.

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

#404

Post by lerpa »

DavidWanjiru wrote: post #389

According to the permissions request dialogue, "...We [want to collect your data even after you're dropped off] to improve pickups, drop-offs, customer service and to enhance safety..." I don't buy any of it. Here's why: IMPROVE DROP-OFFS: The most improved drop-off that Uber can deliver is the one I, the passenger, gives them, either verbally to the driver, via GPS by them noting the point where I was dropped off, o…

> Normally, I ask to be dropped off where it's most convenient for me, and the most convenient for me is the best drop-off experience possible.

Big brother knows best, surrender now, you'll be assimilated.

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

#405

Post by karmacoda »

HeavyStorm wrote: post #372
pawadu wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Very rare to have a company this size to be ethical.

Yes. These companies have teams of people spewing out a list of values for PR, and thinking that they have Jedi mind trick powers over the employees (on some people it actually works!). It's the company image, not how the company operates.

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

#406

Post by op00to »

HappyTypist wrote: post #52
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…

It's to analyse where riders actually go after being dropped off; for example understanding that if you want to go to building XYZ you have to get off here. Collecting data for self driving cars probably.

Great! Why not allow people to opt out of the enhanced location gathering? I'll continue the old fashioned way of telling my driver where I want to go, and retain my small shred of privacy. People who are unable to navigate the big scary world by themselves can allow Uber to collect data and drop them off where they want to go.

Just let me opt out.

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

#407

Post by [deleted] »

HappyTypist wrote: post #52
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…

It's to analyse where riders actually go after being dropped off; for example understanding that if you want to go to building XYZ you have to get off here. Collecting data for self driving cars probably.

[deleted]

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

#408

Post by op00to »

bastawhiz wrote: post #91
yladiz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but why does Uber need/care about that information? If I ask to be dropped off at X and walk a couple blocks to Y, Uber shouldn't care. I can understand the argument that maybe going to certain buildings you have to be dropped off at a specific spot, but that seems like a minor gain for something that's more than just a minor intrusion.

(Uber engineer here) The data is used for (or can be used for) a number of practical and important purposes. These are some examples of what we do as well as what we could do with such data: - Fighting fraud - Improving "suggested pickup" locations - Improvements around POOL (we'd rather suggest a location that's easy to pick up from than one that's unsafe) - Figuring out what side of the street you end up on (we can…

For all this safety shit you're talking about, does that mean if I get dropped off in an unsafe manner or unsafe area, I can now sue Uber if I get hurt. Seems like if you're making all these efforts, you're making a promise of warranty that my entire trip is safe, even after I open the car door and step out into traffic.

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

#409

Post by pawadu »

buro9 wrote: post #395

For Uber and UberEats I now manually manage these in Android (which I do for a few other apps I have lower trust for). Which means I shut off all permissions between uses, and I block all notifications. I grant Location, only as needed to get a driver or place an order. Once I'm in the car, I turn airplane mode on, deny all permissions and notifications, and I reboot the phone. Isn't it crazy that this is where we ar…

Have you tested any automation apps for Android like Tasker [1] and Automate [2] for doing all this automagically?

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.a...

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

#410

Post by uiuiuop »

swyman wrote: post #318
uiuiuop wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Oh yeah, I don't like it either. Just saying this is another revenue stream for companies.
Post reply on HN