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Uber Says App Doesn't Keep Track of Location; iOS Maps Extension to Blame (ndtv.com)
Uber recently landed itself in hot water after a report claimed that its app was tracking the location of passengers even when they had not used the service for weeks. The company has responded to the accusations. From a report: The company has come up with an explanation and says that the location-tracking is enabled for some users due to a new iOS setting. Uber stresses that it's not its app that's doing this -- but an iOS feature. John Gruber of DaringFireball in a recent post had claimed how Uber was tracking user location and it could be easily checked via Settings > Privacy > Location Services on an iOS device. The setting showed how an app was tracking the location in three options: "Always", "While using the app", and "Never." However, several users shared screenshots of the Settings page that showed Uber location tracking as set to "Always" despite not having used the app in nearly a week. An Uber spokesperson in a statement said this behaviour was attributable to use of the new iOS Maps extension, "For people who choose to integrate ride-sharing apps with iOS Maps, location data must be shared in order for you to request a ride inside the Maps app. Map extensions are disabled by default and you can choose to turn them on in your iOS settings."
And when it comes out that in actual fact, it does keep track, that this is just a smokescreen, they will be in even deeper shit. This company needs to die, already. They are the current posterchildren for greed and arrogance trumping ethical considerations. Somebody with authority, please find the gnads to spank them, and as hard as you can.
It's their wives who switched that feature on.
Uber is set to "Always" after some update to it in the recent months removed the "while using" option altogether. Having the Maps integration off does not bring "while using" off.
Uber is just evil.
What's the excuse for it on Android devices?
these assholes? Down with Uber! #KalanickForPrison
...isn't this problem just the same on the Android version of Uber? Obviously it's not an "OS bug" at any level, it's intended behavior.
I wonder if all the other apps that use the Apple Maps integration, such as Lyft, OpenTable, and Yelp, also exhibit the same behaviour of changing the location tracking setting from "While using the app" to "Always"? Furthermore, if Siri integration can pass the location information to the ride hailing app just in time as it is invoked, why can't Maps integration accomplish the same feat? Finally, while I understand why Apple Maps would need location tracking to be set to be "Always" to accomplish some of its magic, why isn't this being reported as such... instead of misreporting it as being the app using Apple Maps integration that has its location tracking setting to "Always"
Because it is in no way tech related and every other news outlet has covered it extensively?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
The Uber app on iOS doesn't even allow the "While Using" option(on my phone at least) , it just has Never or Always and it requires you to select Always to use it. I have all iOS map extensions turned off and this doesn't change anything. My privacy settings showed Uber has polled my location in the last 24 hours and I haven't used the app in weeks.
Interesting claim. Can you please indicate where one selects "While Using" in the settings here:
http://i.imgur.com/Qb6YdLe.jpg
This is from Uber 3.225.3 on iOS 10.2.
Wasn't needed. Slashdot usually doesn't cover random terrorist attacks unless everything else is down or it has a tech angle.
There is no While Using on my latest ios version. I put it to Never and change it to Always only when I am using the app.
Do any other apps show "While Using" for you? I wonder if some setting somewhere disables that ability (could not find anything like that), or alternately perhaps some hardware does not support "While Using"? I know that While Using appears (for me) on an iPhone 6S Plus, and an iPhone 7 Plus.
In any case, it's not Uber that removed the ability or I would not see it on my devices.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Do any other apps show "While Using" for you?
Yes. You are just a liar.
This makes no sense to me, but if you turn OFF "Background App Refresh" for Uber, then location services shows only "Always" and "Never" options and "While Using" vanishes.
The bad thing is, that "While Using" doesn't seem to re-appear after you turn the setting back on for Uber...
Seems like a bug in iOS? Or possibly, I was able to keep "While Using" because I had it set before, but as soon as it got unset I am only able to use those options going forward, in which case I apologize... really someone needs to open the app bundle and see what it has specified.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Uber could solve this whole thing by simply bringing back the choice of "while using".
Apparently their desire to track customers not using the phone overcomes reason.
Perhaps they are selling this information? Being able to track people against their will has some value right?
The possibility of Uber selling this information to governments, to criminal organizations, to terrorists, to law enforcement, or to all of the above is just too much.
Uber must be forced to offer the option to turn off notifications when their app is not being used.
If they refuse, then the public rightly has cause to question their motives, and Apple should ban them from the app store. Yes it would cripple their business. Who cares.
I am viewing that setting through the process you described. It's well-known that Uber pushed out the change to remove the "while using" option at the beginning of December. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/...
I'd say that you should consider yourself lucky to be the outlier. How you got there, I have no idea...
ios has a pretty extrnsive config and sometimes you have to look at more than one place for things but ios has the best config that you do not have to agree to things per app because its configured better with the user in mind if the user bothers to configure it and understant all the settings.
The solution to this is really simple. App developers can use one of three location services in iOS: always, never, and only when app is active. The latter is admittedly new, only having been available for the last two versions of iOS. But several developers deliberately choose to only offer the user two options: always or never. They are banking on the fact that it will be so onerous to go into location services and turn it off when not using it that they'll just leave it turned on always. It's just that simple. It's not like it is super difficult to get the third option (only when app is active) implemented, nor does Uber have any shortage of really sharp developers who could make the change in short order. The simple reality is that it just doesn't fit their business plan.
You were right the second idea. You were grandfathered in because you had set "while using" in the past.
No longer.
Im looking to Apple to force offer "while using" regardless of whether the app developer wants that setting or not.
The more I think about it, I am pretty sure I was looking at settings but had not opened the app in a while - I had used it as recently as the end of October, but I think after that is when they took away "while using". So I saw the Uber location settings that reflected the last time I had used the app... after I opened the app iOS saw the new possible location values (always or never) and at that time updated the settings values. Pretty sure that "Background app refresh" had nothing to do with it now. So, I definitely apologize for that assumption, and agree that Uber is pretty annoying for taking away the "While using" options. Perhaps it has something to do with having the map extension, maybe they can't offer "while using" because the map extension will not work. I don't know when that got added.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You claim one thing, someone else claims the opposite, and you've both provided "proof" that is trivially spoofed using MSPaint. At this point, I think someone is gonna need to take a picture (not a screenshot) of their phone and post that.
It's a leftist politically correct conspiracy! The mooooooooooooooooooooslims are gonna getcha!
Whatever may be going on with the passenger app, the driver app certainly does track even when the driver is set to "offline" status i.e. not doing Uber work at that time.
They also track various things like braking and acceleration when the app is online but not actively carrying a fare. They like sending reminders when they feel your driving hasn't been smooth enough. I drive an SUV which is otherwise qualified for Uber. It happens to have truck-like handling which they interpret as harshness. Well yes. It's a truck-based SUV. If you didn't want that, why let me sign up to drive?
BTW, it is very hard to make money as an Uber driver. The company is on-boarding around a hundred drivers a day in my area so the competition for fares is intense. And at the same time, Uber is pushing Pool rides and UberEats fares, neither of which pay much.
With the money they lose every quarter, they are artificially subsidizing the costs they charge riders and businesses and probably padding what they pay drivers, which is already minimal anyway. So this company is poised to collapse entirely when the money runs out, and it will. Uber is already dead. They just don't know it yet.
Sig for hire.
I included the entire top half of the screen, including title bar of the phone, and settings text at the bottom...
It's actually not truly that trivial to fake either screen though, and I did look carefully at the other post for evidence of that.
But if you read the other messages the mystery has been solved. I had simply opened up settings before I had run the updated version of the app (iOS does not know about changes to possibly location modes until it opens the app and reads the application info plist), once I ran the app I was in the same boat as everyone else and now I only get the two options.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley