So thoughtful. Uber says it won't track you after you leave their vehicles Amid heavy criticism over how it handles user privacy, Uber has agreed to not track riders after their trips end. The ride-hailing company has infamously faced legal suits on previous occasions over privacy issues, including software for tracking high-profile individuals, the acquaintances of Uber employees and even drivers …
Aren't you tracking the driver? So why do you think that you need to track your customers?
Sorry Uber. I'm not going to play ball and use any service that tracks me.
I really hope that the people who have loaned you heaps of money decide to call in their loans TODAY and you go to the wall tomorrow.
The reason they were tracking in the first place is because of their "Greyball" program to detect law enforcement officers doing test purchases.
Now that was a pretty piss poor excuse from then if ever I heard one. Same for the excuse of tracking customers when the driver data is available. I won't go into the other things wrong with Uber but it appears that manglement took Ethics 101 in school and used the "don't do this" to mean "do this". Given the choice of Uber or Shanks' Mare, I'll take the later thank you.
But the simple fact is iOS11, which will probably be on general release in a couple of weeks time, has incorporated a big blue indicator banner at the top of the screen naming and shaming apps utilising background tracking (they can no longer do so surreptitiously - the previous small location indicator arrow was too obscure and most user's wouldn't go to settings to check which app had triggered it).
If an app uses location tracking all the time, customer's will be asking why and will get annoyed that the big blue banner keeps displaying, and will probably also disallow location tracking when the app is not in use. Uber of course know this, so pretending to have come over all caring about customer privacy simply doesn't wash. Indeed that they have come out with this now, after they will have been running the software on the iOS11 beta for a couple of months, and will have realised how untrustworthy that banner reveals them to be, IMO simply shows what cynical wankers they are.
The official reason is to check that the driver dropped you off at the correct place, on the correct side of the road. If tracking shows you crossed the road immediately after being dropped off, the driver probably wasn't giving service as high as possible.
My taxi company don't need no app to track me. I always ring up in person but I noticed from the call logs on my phone the other day the average call duration is nine seconds. The conversation proceeds at normal pace, just so much context is implied by routine I need only say how long it is before I want picking up from the pub.
A great example of apps using the generic "we update the software regularly so we can make it better for you", whilst sneaking in new code to do this kind of thing and who knows what else.
About time the App Store made this kind of description against the TOS and forced app developers to tell users what they are updating... Then again, the likes of Facebook would probably just threaten removing their app from iOS and Apple would cave in.
Like the mysterious windows 10 update KB4033637 that was released yesterday and doesn't have an entry on the MS website
https://support.microsoft.com/en-my/help/4033637
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3220527/microsoft-windows/undocumented-patch-kb-4033637-pushed-onto-win10-1607-machines.html
You may get down voted (let's ignore the obligatory one), but you are spot on.
People huff and puff about Uber tracking(easily removed by not using it), yet will be using an android phone which will be tracking and blabbing on you constantly (I don't own iOS, so can't comment on that)
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of them tracking you, but there are is a bigger elephant in the room.
Some of us don't use android, google and all the rest (especially Uber) but we are very much in the minority but like everyone we need to be constantly on our guard in case something slips through and starts leaking everything we do to the various TLA's, Ad Slingers and the rest of the evil barstewards.
"I use Android on BlackBerry. No problem turning off individual rights in each application. I'd assumed this was standard in Android, but obviously not."
It is standard, and has been since Android 5 or 6. It's not a lot of help with background tracking though, since most of the apps involved have a good reason to want your location some of the time and won't work if you don't allow it - Uber need to know where you are in order to pick you up, the problem is that once you've allowed them that permission they can use it any time they like. Even making it more obvious when an app is doing this, as Apple are planning, doesn't really help, since there's still nothing you can do about it other than refusing to use the app in question, and it's clear most people aren't actually willing to do that.
"Even making it more obvious when an app is doing this, as Apple are planning, doesn't really help, since there's still nothing you can do about it other than refusing to use the app in question, and it's clear most people aren't actually willing to do that."
If it's not previously been clear to users that an app is tracking them than it's by no means clear that people aren't willing to do without it.
Usually on my iPhone it's pretty simple : if an app wants my location and I consider it interesting *for me*, I allow it while using. If the options are always or never, it's never.
That makes me wonder though : if an app supports this at first but then weasels out, what's the default for iOS ? Will it revert to always, never, or just pop up the question again ? Does anyone know ?
The only data you need from me is
- where I am
- where I want to go
- er
- nothing else
The phone doesn't know where I am, except by triangulating towers, so you're going to have to take my word on that one, and the other's on the map. Once the journey is over and paid for, so is our relationship. You don't talk to me, ever, and I'll talk to you if I want another ride.
Come to think of it, that applies to just about every other transaction either over the net or on the high street... I'll call you when I want you.
In the same way that Samaritans Radar was cut short by the indignant shrieking and howling of people who'd never need it, this facility is actually there to help people as it means that there is a record of where someone is for five minutes after they leave an Uber. Given that most Uber riders are drunk twenty-something self-entitled arts students who couldn't find their arse with their elbow on a clear day, this tracking could save all sorts of potential hazards and problems - everything from straightforward passing out to abductions and attacks. But too bad, you want a safe world - here's technology making you safe. Do some thinking, people.
I dunno, isn't one of the lessons of the Internet that there is no moral or philosophical position, no matter how dumb, illogical or plain ridiculous, that you cannot find someone to aggressively espouse? Still, must admit, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
This post has been deleted by its author
Dear Anonymous Coward
Can you give me one example of Über using the data for this purpose? When have you ever contacted the police / ambulance department to inform them that a customer's location data gives you cause for concern?
Besides, I'm not sure the location data is accurate enough to tell the difference between someone lying unconscious in the street outside their home, and someone lying in bed inside their home. It would be in range of the same wifi routers, and GPS is accurate to about 20 meters.
Also, how much did Über pay you for writing your comment?
Well they are if they are counter productive. If the ends can't justify the means, for sure the means can't justify the ends. If I am empathetic about the fears and frights of children being forced to have needles and drugs stuck in them, and ban vaccination, a conspiracy of the evil pharmaceutical companies, am I doing a good thing?
You deserve a down vote, of course, on the other hand, the little gem "given that most Uber riders are drunk twenty-something self-entitled arts students who couldn't find their arse with their elbow on a clear day", you deserve an up vote. Sadly, I don't think the software allows both.
What Uber did across the aboard was illegal... Revising T&C / Paltry fines / lawsuits from Epic / EFF won't ever fix this! I actively boycott companies now that no longer offer a way to do business offline and via cash. Why? You know they're going to fuck you... Or sell / peddle your info to the lowest common denominator without proper disclosure / conscious permission!
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