Their penchant for wanting to track people was weird. Why it took so long to stop this nonsense is beyond me.
Uber will end a controversial policy of tracking some riders for five minutes after their trip ends, the ride-hailing company said Tuesday as it tries to repair its privacy reputation.
Uber was criticized by users and privacy advocates when it announced last year that it would collect location data from riders through its app from the time the trip was requested through five minutes after it ended. Uber said it was doing so “to improve pickups, drop-offs, customer service, and to enhance safety.”
Users who didn’t want to be tracked after their ride ended could opt out by turning off the app’s location services. But that required users to manually enter their pickup location.
Uber is “rolling back the decision to collect post-trip location for all riders,” company spokeswoman Melanie Ensign said. The change was first reported by Reuters…
In the coming weeks, customers using iOS devices will have a third option in their settings: to allow Uber to collect location data only while the app is in use, and to stop once the trip is over, Ensign said. Any time Uber wants to access location data while the app is running in the background, the user will get a notice and can choose whether to share the information.
I wouldn’t use them for that reason alone. Will still hesitate because it’s still creepy.