If you weren’t aware, Uber has a controversial practice of tracking your location even after the ride that you just took has ended. The company tracked the location of its users even when they weren’t using its app. Uber started doing this last year after sending out an app update that prompted users to allow Uber to track their location even when they weren’t using it. The ride-hailing company has now confirmed that it’s going to stop doing that.
Uber previously gave users the option of sharing their location with the service only when they were using the app. Last year’s update took away that control for them and gave Uber complete control over tracking the user. This meant that it could track them even when they weren’t using its app.
Uber said back then that this was important for enhancing rider safety and that the data obtained would be used to improve pick up and drop off locations. It also said that location data would only be collected for up to five minutes after every completed ride.
Nevertheless, this decision caused the company to take a lot of flak from privacy advocates who viewed this as a move on Uber’s part to limit user control over their own data.
Uber’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan has confirmed to Reuters that Uber will now stop tracking users after their ride ends.
The update that makes this change will be rolling to first to iPhone users later this week before it’s eventually released for Android in the near future.