Uber Technologies will no longer track its app users' physical locations once a ride ends, Reuters has reported.
The company's security officer Joe Sullivan told Reuters in an interview that the company, which has been subject to criticism over its privacy and data collection policies, will discontinue a feature on its app that tracks riders for up to five minutes following the conclusion of a trip.
According to Reuters, Uber updated its app last November so that users no longer had the ability to restrict location tracking to only when the app is actively in use. Instead, they had to choose between allowing the company to always collect location data (even after a ride ends) or shutting off the feature entirely. However, eliminating all location tracking means users must then enter their pick-up locations manually.
Uber claims that post-ride tracking was introduced to improve user safety, and that it never began using the feature on iPhone users and suspended the feature for Android users, the news report states. Reuters has further reported that Uber will restore the option of limiting location tracking to when the app is actively being used, and will roll this update to iPhone users this week.
