Uber drivers will no longer see exact location history for riders
Customer pickup and drop-off logs will show areas instead of locations.
Uber has been improving both driver and passenger safety with new features -- or, in its latest move, by modifying existing settings. As part of a new pilot program, the company will soon start obscuring the log of rider pickup and drop-off locations given to drivers. Instead, they'll receive a list of general areas.
As it stands, once an Uber driver accepts a passenger, they get a list of locations where the customer has been picked up and dropped off -- which are stored indefinitely, allowing the driver to look it up later. Worse, that data doesn't go away if a rider shuts down their account. Making this list a collection of vague areas is a step in the right direction, though Uber has tweaked what customer location data drivers can access before.
Clearly Uber is trying to balance rider comfort with driver protection. "The new design provides enough information for drivers to identify past trips for customer support issues or earning disputes without granting them ongoing access to rider addresses," an Uber spokesperson told Gizmodo. While the design might change after feedback, the company fully intends to make this location-obscuring setting a default in the coming months, the spokesperson said.
