Wednesday, December 21, 2016

"Uber Update Lets You Set a Friend's Location as a Ride Destination"

Well, that makes it both tracking you in real time and accessing your phone's contacts announced this month.
Or, as Gizmodo put it: "Uber's Latest Update Is Even Creepier Than Its Last One"

I have a certain fondness for that locution, see below.

From Mac Rumors:
Uber today announced an update to its app that makes it easier to hail a ride and set a destination directly to person in your iPhone contacts list. After syncing contacts to Uber, users can type a friend's name into the "Where To" box in the app, and Uber will then send a request to that person to share their location with you, which can be set as a destination.

The app can also update friends and family with a feature that sends your ETA to their phone as you ride in the Uber and make it closer to the drop-off point. Following negative reactions to background location tracking, some users might be apprehensive about sharing their contacts list with the app, however. 
"Where are you? Where’s that again? These are common questions we ask friends and family when meeting up. If you’re catching up with friends when out of town, meeting your sister at the mall, or joining coworkers for drinks, now you can skip the back and forth. Just Uber directly to them! So skip the back and forth, forget the address, and get straight to whom you’re meeting up with."
...MORE

Previously:
Dec. 2, 2016
Uber Is Now Tracking You After Your Trip
Creepy... 

June 2015 
Corrected--Starting July 15 Uber Will Track Your Location Whether You're Using the App Or Not
Correction:

...An Uber spokesperson has clarified to Engadget that tracking passengers in real time and accessing users' address books are merely "potential new use cases." The company has no solid plans to roll those features out at the moment "We are not currently collecting this data and have no plans to start on July 15,"
 ...MORE

November, 2014
UPDATED--Here's the Real Problem With Uber: You Can't Trust Them