Uber changed its privacy policy yesterday, but even that may not cover its back this time. Because its top New York executive, Josh Mohrer, has been using an internal tool called God View to track a journalist without her permission.
Buzzfeed reports that one of its journalists, Johana Bhuiyan, used Uber to travel to a meeting with Josh Mohrer last month. On arriving, he was waiting for her, then casually said “I was tracking you” as he pointed to his iPhone.
Buzzfeed has since learned from two ex-Uber employees that a tool known as “God View” allows the company’s staff to track both Uber vehicles and customers. It’s not open to drivers at all, but it is apparently “widely available” at a corporate level.
Tracking Bhuiyan obviously flies in the face of even Uber’s latest privacy policy, which states that employees are prohibited to look at customer rider histories except for “legitimate business purposes.” People have previously written about being tracked by Uber, though this case sounds rather more concrete.
While it makes sense for Uber to be able to track its drivers, if only for saefty reason, naming the system God View, tracking journalists with it, and then telling them about it… well, it doesn’t seem like great business sense. How about Buzzfeed]