Uber has announced that it is ending a controversial “feature” that tracked passengers for five minutes after taking a trip. According to the company, this has nothing to do with the arrival of a new CEO, but rather that the company has learnt from its mistakes.
Chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said that the company is dedicated to customer security; but lacked expertise in the matter. The tracking feature was originally introduced as a method of keeping tabs on passengers to ensure their safety. Although the sentiment was not shared by people who were being tracked.
Critics saw the move as an invasion of privacy, which was only made worse by revelations of Uber employees abusing their positions. The company has since undergone a massive overhaul that cumulated in the removal of founder Travis Kalanick.
Things as set to change as new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi of Expedia, is set to take charge soon. The new chief has a mountain of problems to deal with in fixing Uber. His new company has only just settled a case with the US Federal Trade Commission for failing to protect customer privacy.
The removal of the feature is unlikely to affect most people perceive Uber, seeing that it never stopped anyone from using the service. Uber itself said that the tracking never went live on iOS devices; while it has already been disabled for Android users.
[Source: Reuters]
