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Uber Wants To Track Your Location Even When You're Not Using the App, Here's Why (businessinsider.com)
With the most recent update to Uber's ride-hailing app, the company has begun requesting users if they are willing to share their location data with Uber app even while the app is not in use. The company says it plans to use the data gained to improve user experience -- including offering improved pick-up times and locations. From an article on Business Insider: In August the company moved away from using Google Maps for its service and began using its own mapping technology. Google's lack of accuracy in many non-Western countries led to increased friction between consumers and drivers. This means the company needs to boost the amount of location data it has. Location data could also be used to provide new channels of revenue for the digital platform. This could include serving ads of local businesses or recommending nearby places of interest to users. Mobile marketing, which relies on accurate location data is a rapidly growing industry and could serve as a revenue windfall for Uber in the years ahead as it faces increasing competition. In fact, revenue from location-targeted mobile ads is expected to grow at an annualized rate of almost 34% between 2014 and 2019, surpassing $18 billion, according to a forecast from BIA/Kelsey.
What could possibly go wrong?
Because I'm tacky!
The sole reason I charge my mobile and pay my data plan is so that companies can use me to improve their business plans and profitability while providing me with zero compensation. Let me know if I can do something else to help!
Raymond Chen has a recurring theme on his Old New Thing blog of "What if applications other than yours did this?" What would battery life or capped data plans look like if every application felt a need to send location telemetry home all the time?
Pining for the days when The Glorious MEEPT!!! graced SlapDash with his wisdom.
I miss the surge indicator and the "txt me back when the surge is gone" feature. I understand the drunks and the morons don't understand the meaning of 1.9x, 10x, etc. but I think it should be an option the way this is presented.
I haven't used Lyft yet but I'm thinking about it now that Uber has lost its "magic" the edge is gone. Plus having UberPool as the default and no way to remove it is damn stupid.
I don't even keep location services turned on except when I need to use my phone as a GPS, never mind allow any apps to access it.
Why the hell would I want to share my location with Uber? Oh, right - "Location data could also be used to provide new channels of revenue for the digital platform. This could include serving ads of local businesses". Yeah, kindly fuck right off, Uber.
Isn't that going to be a bit of a battery drain issue? In order to do that, its going to have to constantly be running something in the background checking your GPS.
That being said, Google is already doing this on Android. I know this because I'm constantly getting maps notifications of how long it will take to drive to home/work, unasked. Still, I think it only does that twice a day, and this uber thing seems completely open-ended.
"...The company says it plans to use the data gained to improve user experience..."
Oh, enough with the bullshit.
You want this additional telemetry data because you're going to sell it.
You want this additional telemetry data because you're going to sell it.
You want this additional telemetry data because you're going to sell it.
Revenue and Profit are the king and queen of business, so drop the lame-ass excuses for gathering more data already. Shit gets old.
How is knowing my location BEFORE I request a ride going to improve pickup times? Are they just going to have a driver follow me around all the time? This sounds like just a grab for more data and data seems to be the new currency.
With all due respect, Fuck YoUber!
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how were you expecting to pay?
At the end of the ride.
When I get a cab I pay with my card at the end of the ride and the card stays in my possession.
Uber wants to hold onto your card just in case. Maybe they'll decide you need to pay some 'extra' charges after your ride, maybe the driver puts in a claim that you soiled the car or something. Fuck that.
You miss the point of Uber (and Lyft and other ride sharing services). The point being you don't have to have your wallet or cards w/ you. Let's say you're taking a walk and decide to visit a friend, something for which you need not have your wallet w/ you. So you reach for your phone, call Uber, get taken to her place, get dropped and don't think about it, once the driver ends the ride. As an added advantage, you don't have to haggle, and can decide whether to tip or not (in case of Lyft - I doubt that Uber has tips).
How does that work? Let's say a Uber driver approaches you, and you oblige by opening the app. It won't necessarily be his phone that will get the call
"Trust us with your data, because like when were we known to flagrantly violate your laws."
Bye!
They decided that their vetting procedure is better than the Nation's passenger vehicle licensing requirements, so stopped requiring their drivers to have passenger vehicle licenses.
The Land Transport agency has put them straight there.
The are trying to operate in a very competitive environment (in my city) and if they're not cheaper than the current over supply of taxis, then they're not going to get much business.
The only time I've been in an Uber taxi, I asked the driver if he liked it and he said it was his last shift, as it didn't pay enough.
He was going to drive one of his cousin's taxis instead, it paid better.
Yup.. Since I'm retired, I was thinking about driving part-time for Lyft/Uber.. After discovering that I had to get THREE FUCKING BUSINESS LICENSES, one state,one county and one city, for a total out-of-pocket of close to $500/YEAR!, plus the wear/tear on the car and gas, I'd be making close to $12 WHOLE DOLLARS/HOUR..... FUCK UBER!
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
This is the same company that threatened to shame journalist with their late-night whereabouts if they wrote unflattering reviews, right? I see no reason not to allow them even more access to your data.
Evidently, no. That's what you would assume something known as "ride-sharing" would mean, but neither Uber or any other so-called ride-sharing company thinks so. They ALL are a taxi-service over the internet, but don't want to follow any of the taxi regulations.
I think one of the companies actually did finally roll out a sub-service that actually is ride-sharing, it was basically car-pooling organized over the internet.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
At the moment I'm stuck with an old Android phone. Thus, no Whatsapp, no Facebook, no $LATEST_FAD_APP, no Uber app. (I am however able to get some apps from alternative app stores like F.droid.) I can obviously use web apps no problem. Google told me that the mobile site of Uber could be used if no app available, but they need to activate your account for it, which didn't happen: Uber support basically told me: upgrade your phone. Not happening.
In the mean time, the time for my hospital procedure which involved anesthetics (so no driving myself to and from the hospital) came and went, and that's one of the benefits of having a real life circle of friends: some can chip in and help you with a ride for not much more than a "thank you".
I guess I'll continue to drive myself, ride bicycle, bum rides, get courtesy lifts or loan vehicles from the workshop, rent a car, etc. as in the previous decades of my life.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
"... And it's gone."
-- My Sig is a P228.
How about "Fuck greedy governments!"?