Uber Claims To Have Scaled Back Use Of Its ‘God View’ Tool

Uber Claims To Have Scaled Back Use Of Its ‘God View’ Tool

In November, it came to light that Uber employees were able to track its riders using a “God View” tool. Now, in a letter to US Senator Al Franken, the company has explained that it’s scaling back the use of the tool.

In last month’s report, Buzzfeed reported that Uber’s top New York executive, Josh Mohrer, had been using an internal tool called God View to track a journalist without her permission. It then became public knowledge that the tool allowed the company’s staff to track both Uber vehicles and customers.

The incident prompted Senator Al Franken to write to Uber, asking it to explain itself. In a reply, Uber explains that Mohrer used God View initially to to send the Buzzfeed journalist notifications that she said she hadn’t received — “just as he would if he had heard from any other rider that he or she was not receiving notifications and wanted help” — and then a second time to find out where she was when she ran late by over 30 minutes.

The letter goes on to explain that Mohrer has been disciplined accordingly, and that God View access has now been scaled back so that only employees in “operations or other areas, like fraud prevention” can use it. Which is positive if not perfect, we suppose. You can read the letter in full below. [Buzzfeed]


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