Over the past year, Uber has been plagued by stories calling their privacy policies into question. Perhaps most infamously, BuzzFeed and Forbes reported that Uber employees abused their “God view” feature, which allowed them to see a detailed map revealing user names and locations.
There have been various calls for legislation cracking down on the company, and now, USA Today reports, a privacy rights group has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and demanded an investigation, saying that Uber “regularly abuses its access to customer location data.”
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) pinpointed several new Uber policies in their complaint, including the ability to see location data from user cell phones even when they aren’t actively using the app. They accuse the company of “unfair and deceptive data collection practices.”
An Uber spokeswoman told Ars Technica that they are not “currently” collecting background location data but “may want to start doing that in order to provide new useful features, such as providing faster loading time when the user opens the app.”
“If we move forward with this, users- will be in control and can choose whether they want to share the data with Uber.”
From USA Today:
If the user permits it, the Uber app can access the user’s address book and use the names and contact information it finds there.
Uber spokeswoman Jessica Santillo said there was no basis for the complaint.
“We care deeply about the privacy of our riders and driver-partners,” she said. “These updated statements don’t reflect a shift in our practices, they more clearly lay out the data we collect today and how it is used to provide or improve our services.”
And while users can opt out of some of the more concerning features, EPIC alleges this still “places an unreasonable burden on consumers.”
They also claim Android users won’t be able to opt out of information sharing once they’ve already permitted it.
They want the FTC to investigate Uber and similar services, halt their collection of contact information, and ban them from collecting location information “when it is unnecessary for the provision of the service.”
