Roger Fingas
A non-profit public interest group on Monday filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, asking it to investigate Uber over policies that could soon add extra contact and location tracking permissions to its ridesharing apps.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is primarily concerned with the location-tracking permissions, which it said will allow Uber to track users even when its apps are running in the background, Bloomberg reported. Uber's position is that users will be able to opt out of both the contact and location changes, and/or disable location services on their device. EPIC argued however that Uber can still use IP addresses to record location data, and that while iPhones can disable contact sync, it's not an option on Android.
In a statement, Uber said that it doesn't collect background location data and isn't planning to when its new privacy policies take effect on July 15. In a May blog post, however, the company said that policy updates would "allow Uber to ask for access to a rider's location when the app is running in the background and get people on their way more quickly."
It also explained that the contact permissions will enable promotional features such as sharing special offers with friends and family.
Uber has come under intense media and government scrutiny for many of its business practices, including a lack of taxi licensing, and classifying drivers as contractors rather than employees. On the matter of privacy, the EPIC complaint drew special attention to the company's "God View" tool, which allows corporate-level Uber staff to see the location of each car and passengers' travel histories.
In November, BuzzFeed accused an Uber executive using God View to stalk one of its journalists. A now-deleted Uber blog post from March 2012 mentioned the company tracking "rides of glory," meaning trips between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night followed by a ride home four to six hours later.
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
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Amber Neely
16 Comments
I would like to see Apple universally change location settings options in iOS 9 to either "Never" or "While Using".
The problem is the "Always" permission. There is no reason that apps like Uber, MapMyWhatever, Waze, etc. need to know where I am 24/7, nor do they need to be using up battery life (via the GPS radio) in the process.
To go with that, I'd also like to see a kill-all-running (and non-running) apps feature. Or at least a kill-all-background-apps-with-GPS-access feature.
I would like to see Apple universally change location settings options in iOS 9 to either "Never" or "While Using".
Learn how to use your phone.
Settings>Privacy>Location Services> Toggle each app as needed or completely turn location services off!
Learn how to use your phone.
Settings>Privacy>Location Services> Toggle each app as needed or completely turn location services off!
That is a lot less convenient than the other user's suggestion
That is a lot less convenient than the other user's suggestion
Right, because having control over what individual apps can use location services or turning them all off is not convenient at all. I sometimes forget that I live in a world where you can't please everyone. More accurately "anyone" these days.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/186862/privacy-group-asks-ftc-to-limit-location-contact-sharing-in-ubers-mobile-apps#post_2738659"]In November, BuzzFeed accused an Uber executive using God View to stalk one of its journalists. A now-deleted Uber blog post from March 2012 mentioned the company tracking "rides of glory," meaning trips between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night followed by a ride home four to six hours later.[/quote] This the creepy part which people have no clue about. These idiots we so bold to post what they were actually doing, now imagine what Google is doing. As some said, any App which has MapMy**** you should be concerned about, they all know your daily habits. I am really getting tires of these apps which I pay for collecting information about me. Not only are they charging me for the privilage they also monitorizing the data and not sharing it back with people. If they give the app free and tell you the plan to make it up by collecting data that is one thing but they are not telling people that is the plan.