Uber Update: iOS App To Stop Tracking Users After Rides End

Uber announced it would be putting an end to a controversial feature that allowed the company to continue tracking riders even after their rides were over, Reuters reported.

The feature will be removed as part of a new update for the app being pushed out by the ridesharing company. The update, available Tuesday for iPhone users, will only share a user’s location data when they are actively using the app.

A version of the update with the tracking feature removed will be made available to Android users in the future but will not be released at the same time as the iOS version, so owners of Android devices will have to live with Uber’s extra snooping for a little bit longer.

The update marks a reversal of Uber’s plans from November when it first introduced the feature to track its users for up to five minutes after their ride had ended. At the time Uber claimed the feature was installed for safety purposes, designed to ensure a person reached their destination.

When Uber rolled out the feature, they did so in a manner that made it difficult for users to opt out of it. While the additional tracking was optional, the alternative for allowing Uber to keep tabs on movements after the ride ended was for users to manually input pickup locations rather than have the app automatically detect where they were located.

The option was presented to users as binary as well. They could either allow Uber to track all location data—including the window before and after a ride—or track none of the data, forcing them into the manual address entry.

Privacy advocates condemned the feature for being overly invasive. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said criticized the feature and called for Uber to reinstate location tracking only while the app is in use—the way the app had previously operated and will again work with the latest update.

According to Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan, the decision to introduce the feature without better explanation as to what it was for and how it would help riders was a mistake.

He told Reuters the company would take a different approach in the future and would better explain the value of opting in to tracking data. Sullivan said the company suffered from a “lack of expertise” in regard to data privacy.

The tracking feature is far from the first time Uber has come under fire for its potentially invasive data collection and tracking practices. The company infamously had an internal feature called “God View” that allowed employees to view and track the location of riders without their consent.

The removal of the feature comes at a tumultuous time for the ride-sharing company. Earlier this week, news broke that former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi would be taking over the top post at Uber, though the company said changes in management played no role in the decision to undo the tracking feature.

Earlier this month, Uber came to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over complaints that the company made deceptive claims about privacy and data security. As part of the settlement, Uber will be required to undergo independently conducted audits every two years for the next 20 years.