Taxi-hailing app Uber now has plans to hide a passenger’s exact pickup and drop-off location in a driver’s trip history. In an effort to reduce a passenger's data exposure and increase safety, the soon-to-be-launched pilot program will show drivers a more general location.
Taxi-hailing app Uber now has plans to hide a passenger’s exact pickup and drop-off location in a driver’s trip history. In an effort to reduce a passenger's data exposure and increase safety, the soon-to-be-launched pilot program will show drivers a more general location.
In conversation with Gizmodo, an Uber spokesperson said, “Location data is our most sensitive information, and we are doing everything we can do to protect privacy around it. The new design provides enough information for drivers to identify past trips for customer support issues or earning disputes without granting them ongoing access to rider addresses.”
At the moment, Uber shows its drivers exactly where a passenger has been picked and dropped off, in the history section of the app. This implies that a driver has access to where a passenger lives or where he/she goes to work. This information is stored in the app, even if the passenger deletes the app.
The report points out that this change will also help the company comply with the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation, which requires tech companies to allow users to delete their data but also requires companies to give users access to their own data.
Last week, Uber said it is "doubling down" on its investment in the Indian market, pumping in funds to expand its products, partnerships and technology headcount in the country. "India is absolutely a core market, now and in the future. Uber's success is hard coded to India's success...We are doubling down on our investments in this country like never before," Uber COO Barney Hardford told reporters.
He added that the company's recent deal with Grab in South East Asia has "freed up resources which we are going to invest across people, products and partnerships that can better serve this country and the cities that we operate in".
He also reiterated that while the company is open to discussions, there is no interest in doing a minority stake deal in India. There have been reports about Uber and rival Ola joining forces in the Indian market. The speculations got stronger after SoftBank - an investor in Ola - joined Uber as an investor committing over $1 billion. Apart from India, the two now also compete in the Australian market, with Ola recently launching its services in Perth and Sydney.
According to sources, the two have held multiple rounds of discussions, including one just before Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's visit in February this year but the two parties are yet to strike a deal. Both, Ola and Uber have declined to comment specifically on whether the two are engaged in merger discussions.
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