Uber Says App Doesn't Keep Track of Location; iOS Maps Extension to Blame (ndtv.com) 38
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."
Re: Countdown to implosion (Score:1)
Easily explained (Score:2, Funny)
It's their wives who switched that feature on.
Re:Why lie? "While Using" still there. (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting claim. Can you please indicate where one selects "While Using" in the settings here:
http://i.imgur.com/Qb6YdLe.jpg [imgur.com]
This is from Uber 3.225.3 on iOS 10.2.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
Re: (Score:1)
Do any other apps show "While Using" for you?
Yes. You are just a liar.
Re: (Score:2)
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/... [eff.org]
I'd say that you should consider yourself lucky to be the outlier. How you got there, I have no idea...
Re: (Score:2)
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), o
Figured it out, "Background App Refresh" setting (Score:2)
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 t
Re: (Score:2)
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. S
so... (Score:2)
There is more to this than meets the eye (Score:3)
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"
Re:off topic Berlin (Score:4, Insightful)
Because it is in no way tech related and every other news outlet has covered it extensively?
Re: off topic Berlin (Score:2)
Wasn't needed. Slashdot usually doesn't cover random terrorist attacks unless everything else is down or it has a tech angle.
Re: (Score:1)
So you are saying that "TRUST" is the best policy when it comes to people accessing your property which can invade your privacy?
The driver app does track (Score:3)
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.