The year is not ending on a happy note for app-based ride sharing service Uber.
In November, media reports detailed how an Uber executive used the company’s “God View” tool, which allows employees to see customer activity in real time, to track a reporter’s travel without her consent. Uber employees also reportedly tracked what they termed “Rides of Glory,” weekend users between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.,who were then picked up about six hours later, to determine whichof them were returning from a romantic rendezvous.
Uber isn’t the only company stumbling as it tries to balance valuable geolocation data with privacy protection. The photo-sharing app Snapchat found itself on the wrong side of complaint and settlement with the Federal Trade Commission because its privacy policy claimed that it did not collect location-based information when, in fact, it did. The FTC also settled with the mobile app Brightest Flashlight developer Golden Technologies for failing to adequately disclose the collection and sharing of location information in its privacy policy.
In this week’s podcast, we talk to Fernando Bohorquez, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler who specializes in privacy and data security issues, about how companies can navigate the inherent risks of geolocation data, incorporate the FTC’s “privacy-by-design” standard, and stay out of trouble with regulators and privacy advocates alike.
Listen to the Podcast. (16 min., 15 MB)
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