Uber May Soon Prevent Drivers From Looking Up Riders’ Location Histories

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Under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber has been trying to repair its image after a series of embarrassing and potentially litigious scandals. However, the biggest changes have been in regards to customer safety. Earlier in April, the ride-share company announced new app features that would transmit your location and include a 911 button to push in case of emergencies, as well as expansion of its background check system.

As part of the company’s redesign of the internal app used by its drivers that is being rolled out, customers’ privacy will soon be better protected after making a “tweak” to the pick-up and drop-off locations the drivers can see while transporting fares, which will reflect the locations from a precise pinpoint to a more general area.

An Uber spokesperson explained matters to TechCrunch:

“Location data is our most sensitive information, and we are doing everything we can do to protect privacy around it. The new design provides enough information for drivers to identify past trips for customer support issues or earning disputes without granting them ongoing access to rider addresses.”

In the current app version that Uber is rolling out, the location pin has been expanded by several degrees into a circle, which at least represents a shaded area a few meters around the customer’s location. This will presumably help with future changes made by Uber to profect customers’ privacy.

(Via Techcrunch)

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