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.

Comments

Think Nothing of it, Uber!

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

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?

Re:"Willing to"???

[TroII]

I don't understand why you don't put your SSN in your sig. That information is being stored indefinitely by the government, your bank, and your doctor's office, and it's being shared with God knows who. For some reason you're OK with that, but you don't give it out to everyone? Very strange.