If you've recently opened up Uber on your phone, you will have seen a new alert on how the app can access your location even if you're not using it. This includes tracking you for a full five minutes after your Uber ride has ended, but there's a way to stop it.
In addition to those five minutes after the ride, Uber points out that it tracks your location information at the following times:
- When you are interacting with the Uber app and the app is foregrounded and visible.
- When you’re on a trip: from the time you request a trip until when the trip is ended or canceled by the driver, even if the Uber app is running in the background and not visible to you.
- Uber says it's tracking this information "to improve pickups, drop-offs, customer service, and to enhance safety."
This, understandably, makes some people feel extremely uncomfortable with Uber tracking location information even when users are not using the app and they have provided information on how to stop that: disabling Uber's location services altogether on your phone.
Since all Uber users are automatically opted in to this feature, you're going to have to go to your phone settings to opt out. These are the instructions Uber provides:
- On iOS: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Uber > choose “Never”
- On Android: Settings > Apps > Uber > scroll to “Permission” > toggle “Location”
- On Android Lollipop (5.1) and earlier: Settings > Location > toggle Off
This does, however, mean that Uber can no longer automatically detect your location so if you want to request a pickup, you're going to have to manually enter your location.
In the big picture, this seems like a small price to pay for that extra measure of privacy.
What do you think of Uber's move to automatically collect this information? Let us know in the comments.