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Uber Revises Privacy Policy, Wants More Data From Users
itwbennett tips news that Uber has amended its privacy policy, making it much simpler to read and understand. But the policy also includes changes to what data Uber collects about its riders. Beginning July 15th, the Uber phone app will keep track of a rider's location while it's running in the background. Uber says riders will be able to opt out of this tracking. The policy changes also allow for advertising using the rider's contact list: "for example the ability to send special offers to riders' friends or family." The revision of Uber's privacy policy followed complaints at the end of last year that the company was overstepping its bounds.
adware-infested installers, perhaps hosted on SourceForge, which could also track customers.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
Wait, you think a user can give you permission to spam their friends and family?
How about go fuck yourself and not assuming that because you know Bob, you can scrape his contact list to spam Alice and Mary ... that screams of an epic level of ass-hattery. Because Bob can't legally give you permission to spam Alice and Mary.
Sounds like in addition to being just a dispatcher for illegal cabs, Uber is also a bunch of self entitled assholes who want to spam your friends.
Fuck you, Uber.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Remember me to uninstall it and stop using Uber.
Just no. One more good reason not to use this "service". Uber is clearly run by a bunch of a-holes who think they can do whatever they want with your data. I'll pass. I hope this drives more customers away but, sadly, I doubt it will.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
...The policy changes also allow for advertising using the rider's contact list: "for example the ability to send special offers to riders' friends or family."...
There is absolutely no reason to send anything to my friends or family based upon what Uber finds rummaging through my phone.
.
If any of my friends or family want to receive such advertising, they should be the ones who need to approve the privacy policy. I cannot approve it for them.
Press-and-hold, click the "X", uninstalled!
I saw this yesterday How did my dad's Uber account get hacked?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Why does the commander of a former Galactic Empire have a privacy policy? Did Darth Vader have a privacy policy? No, he had a force choke.
This new movie is going to suck more than a cowboy 'taxi service'.
Uber finally did something that has convinced me not to ever use their service. I know it has an opt out but, I have no interest in any service that wants to track me and use me to advertise to my friends.
If I want to give them some word of mouth to my friends, I will do that when I choose, thanks.
I don't give a shit about skirting regulation or attacking the comfortable regulated complancency of the taxi cab industry. This however, this disgusts me.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
which means it isn't surprising.
this is unsolicited special offer sharing !
I use XPrivacy on Android.
Apps like this that overstep the bounds of what is appropriate get fed garbage data.
The only thing Uber app needs to know is my location when I open up the app. And that's all it gets.
Uber is a multibillion dollar company now and therefore will continue to have rights that far exceed not only any person but any national government as well. In the world we made, Uber no longer has to follow laws. Sad that America had a big part in making things this way but the average American will only suffer from it.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
My only friends are FBI and NSA.
Remember it is not a rideshare service, but rather a global taxi service with centralized command and control which is more that happy to tell everyone where you went and what you were doing. It basically breaks the "cabbie's code" of privacy. And probably stores your credit card information on a laughably secure server.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Dear Bob's Wife,
Based on Bob's Uber profile statistics we have determined that he took 7 after-hours rides to the red light district during recent months. Please find attached 10% discount coupon for a ride to lawyer's office.
Sincerely,
Uber's Customer Retention Team.
while I think it's great that new companies come up with new business models to challenge the status quo of lazy complacent incumbent monopolists, uber show us that it's not about creating fair economy or being customer friendly, but just another way of making money from the willing masses...
while a bit of capitalism and free market economy is ok, ueber has long stopped (never was) an ethical company and we all should stay the f away from their dogy greedy business practices
then again, what did we exepect from a company with that name?
Uber is just trying to kill itself...
"The policy changes also allow for advertising using the rider's contact list: "for example the ability to send special offers to riders' friends or family.""
I'd kill/disown friends/family that served me up this crap.
It would depend a lot on how it's implemented and how it's to be used. Yeah, it would very much suck if they are just scraping all your contacts and then mass spamming them.
I cannot think of a single legitimate business reason they would need my contact list information. I cannot think of anything they could offer me that I would want that would entice me to share that information with them.
Notice the "If" at the beginning? And it's really no different than any other app that allows you to post/share/sent something to a friend or family member.
That depends heavily on whether it is opt in or opt out and whether it is opt in by default and how hard they push you to opt in. Plus the fact that they are even asking is a bit shady as far as I'm concerned.
Uber has discovered that running a taxi service isn't nearly as cheap and profitable to run as they thought it would be and now they need more revenue.
I've used uber about 6 times for various drinking/concert occasions and didn't have any issues. This however is absolutely nuts. If they go forward with this I'll never, NEVER use their service again. There are other options, Lyft and even a cab.
Enjoy your Slashdot Media-tainted SourceForge downloads.
Enjoy your activities being possibly tracked when you download from their sites.
Enjoy assholes raping your privacy for profit.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I'm an Uber and Lyft user. I guess I'll be uninstalling Uber if I can't fully disable this and using Lyft more. I really do wish Google and Apple would get off their asses and let things like individual privilege access into the mainstream, such as being able to deny access to your contact list. For example, you can do this on Cyanogen but not in lollipop. In having this feature any app changes like this can be one 1) opted out or if no opt-out is available 2) deny access to the information these apps want.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
My personal data isworth at least $4000 per instance.
I came up with that number by using an alias name someplace, then seeing how much junk mail I got, how much trash it generated and the expense associated to that, and how many phone calls and emails I got related to it, and the total time I had to spend managing all of it, and I averaged it for a year, and it roughly came to $4000.
For most people it will be about $500, but is that cab ride worth that amount?
Either maintain control of your information, or accept being a slave to big corporations all your life. You decide.
I can see this getting people in trouble show have the ex's number in there contacts
Uber is bad. Facebook performs human testing. Google skews results to favor their products. The FBI had Omnivore....in fact, any IT person that was the least bit surprised by the Snowden "revelations" should be fucking fired for cluelessness.
BTW, I am well aware posting as AC doesn't mean I'm not being tracked, but I try anyway.
So we're all outraged and we all say Fuck Uber. Why the fuck aren't we all in the streets? Why aren't we exposing our politicians as being in bed with these companies?
Oh, that's right....we all work for the companies and governments doing this shit.
Nevermind.
Uber has several features to allow you to split fairs with your contacts, or to tell them you are coming. (useful when late, it includes a realtime map of the car's position). It does not allow them to spam you. It allows them to track their own advertiser's identifiers, in the app. you know like when you are booking a ride.
I would encourage you to try Uber, and or Lyft which takes a slightly more cooperative stance.
...a new war would start, and the app would try to discover if it was looking at a dummy contact list, or a false location, and would again refuse to operate. it could get as bad as the drm wars, if it really came to that
I'm beginning to think that Uber is just a performance art project to see just how big of arseholes a company can become before people leave it.
So they are going to collect even more data, making them an even bigger target for "data liberation" hacks. Hhhm.
Stolen Uber Customer Accounts Are for Sale on the Dark Web for $1
i think they still are. fuck them.
Make sure such emails are flagged as spam, and reported. Let's get their emails servers blacklisted, as they should be if they start doing this.
> riders will be able to opt out I hate this phrase. I've never read Hitchhiker's Guide (yet) but yeah, let's stick that opt out in a basement. In Madagascar.
welcome to the internet of things, if you would argue as to what this "ass-hattery" has to do with IoT... then I present to you this "business model"
This form of asshattery is by no means limited to the "Internet of Things", or "Web 2.0", or "Social Media", or any other buzzword you might choose to throw out there. I'm not even certain it's restricted to Internet manifestations, though those are certainly the easiest and most prominent.
...when you're writing a game...tweak the difficulty of "Easy" to something [your mother] can cope with. -- onion2k
I've never used Uber before as I haven't needed a cab anywhere Uber operates. I assumed that I would try it at some point in the future, but now I guess not.
Maybe they'll get enough new customers through friends and family that they don't need customers who don't want theirs to be harassed.