The Uber Driver Can Monitor Customers’ Location After the Ride Ends

Uber, the world-renowned ride-hailing company, tries to improve their services by monitoring the customer before and after the ride. However, many people have expressed their disagreement towards the new feature.

Earlier this year, in May 2016, Uber has announced that the application will feature a location tracking service that will help the driver to find the customer faster and easier. According to Ars Technica, this means that the user will have to give his consent to be tracked before the driver arrives on the scene.

Once the user enables the rider location tracking service, the Uber drivers can monitor the customer’s whereabouts starting from the minute he orders a ride up until five minutes after the journey. In response, the company says that it relies on this feature so that the drivers can find the customers more efficiently without having to track the latter over the phone. Moreover, one important aspect of the new feature is that Uber makes sure that their clients are picked up from the right location and ultimately dropped off on the right side of the street.

“We are always thinking about ways we can improve the rider experience”, says Uber.

Even though the new feature may seem intrusive, the user has the ultimate say in the matter. Hence, the client can allow the app to track his location by pressing the “Allow” button present on the popup when the service asks for permission. Consequently, the users can also deny the request. Instead, they will have to enter the address manually.

In case a user allows the app to track his location, the feature will run in the background giving out regular updates to the driver. If a user allows Uber to track his location and later changes his mind, he can disable the feature from the phone’s device settings.

Many people still frown upon the company’s latest update. However, in order to put everyone’s minds at ease, Uber has signed a confidentiality agreement with Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General. The agreement states that Uber must protect all the data on its riders’ locations at all times. Furthermore, Uber’s database is also protected by multiple authentication protocols and all information the company stores is in encrypted format.

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