Uber has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons including sexual harassment charges, and other forms users privacy violations. After reports confirmed last year that the Uber app tracks user’s location even after a ride has ended, the company has now reinstated location tracking only after user consent is taken, according to this Reuters report. The development comes after Uber replaced its founder and CEO Travis Kalanick with Expedia’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi While rolling out an update (Version no: 3.222.4) for Uber app last November, the app requested special permissions to track GPS location while it runs in the background and after the ride has ended. The company itself admitted in a blog post that “Uber collects your location data from the time of trip request through to five minutes after the trip ends”. The reason that Uber gave for this: “We do this to improve pickups, drop-offs, customer service, and to enhance safety.” Timeline of Uber’s locations tracking exercise It is important to note that Uber’s location tracking exercises have been happening since 2015, when it first updated the app in July 2015, giving it the ability to track and store user location even after the app is closed manually, and even after disabling GPS settings. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a US-based non-profit research firm filed a formal complaint at that time with US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and termed Uber’s location tracking as “an unlawful and deceptive trade practice”. The complaint paid off, as noted by TechCrunch:…
