Uber to end post-trip tracking of riders as part of privacy push

Uber Technologies Inc. is pulling a heavily criticized feature from its appthat allowed it to track riders for up to five minutes after atrip, its security chief told Reuters, as the ride-hailing company tries to fix its poor reputation for customer privacy.

The change, which restores users' ability to share locationdata only while using the app, is expected to be announced onTuesday and rolled out to iPhone usersstarting this week. It comes as Uber tries to recover from aseries of crises culminating in the ouster of Chief ExecutiveTravis Kalanick and other top executives.

Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of travel-booking company ExpediaInc., is set to become Uber's new chief executive,sources have told Reuters.

The location-tracking update is unrelated to executivechanges, said Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer, in aninterview with Reuters. Sullivan and his team of about 500 havebeen working to beef up customer privacy at Uber since he joinedin 2015.

"We've been building through the turmoil and challengesbecause we already had our mandate," said Sullivan, who is a
member of the executive leadership team that has been co-runningUber since Kalanick left in June.

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An update to the app made last November eliminated theoption for users to limit data-gathering to only when the app is
in use, instead forcing them to choose between letting Uberalways collect location data or never collect it.

Safety feature

Uber said it needed permission to always gather data inorder to track riders for five minutes after a trip wascompleted, which the company believed could help in ensuringcustomers' physical safety. The option to never track requiredriders to manually enter pickup and drop-off addresses.

But the changes were met with swift criticism by some usersand privacy advocates who called them a breach of user trust bya company already under fire for how it collects and usescustomers' data. Uber said it never actually began post-triptracking for iPhone users and suspended it for Android users.

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Sullivan said Uber made a mistake by asking for moreinformation from users without making clear what value Uber
would offer in return. If Uber decides that tracking a rider'slocation for five minutes is valuable in the future, it willseek to explain what the value is and allow customers to opt into the setting, he said.

Sullivan said Uber was committed to privacy but hadpreviously suffered "a lack of expertise" in the area.

The change comes two weeks after Uber settled a U.S. FederalTrade Commission complaint that the company failed to protectthe personal information of drivers and passengers and wasdeceptive about its efforts to prevent snooping by itsemployees.

Uber agreed to conduct an audit every two years for the next20 years to ensure compliance with FTC requirements.

The location-tracking changes will initially only beavailable to iPhone users, but Uber intends to bring parity toAndroid devices, Sullivan said.

The changes are part of a series of updates expected in thecoming year to improve privacy, security and transparency atUber, Sullivan said.

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