{"id":339580,"date":"2017-04-28T21:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1482841"},"modified":"2017-04-28T21:00:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T13:00:47","slug":"uber-adds-privacy-info-and-easy-account-deletion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/uber-adds-privacy-info-and-easy-account-deletion\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber adds privacy info and easy account deletion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Uber announced today that it\u00a0will make it easier for users to delete their accounts and access their privacy settings. Now, the company\u00a0will let users delete their accounts from within the app, without contacting support. The process is known internally as \u201cDear John,\u201d and Uber employees said it has taken over a year to design. Once a user opts to delete their account, Uber will retain the data for 30 days. If the user doesn\u2019t change their mind and return to the service, the data is gone for good.<\/p>\n

Previously,\u00a0users had to email Uber\u2019s support team with an account deletion request and wait for someone to respond.The account deletion process was slow and aggravating for users who, particularly recently, have been leaving the company in order to make a political statement.\u00a0Privacy settings were (and still are) stored in a phone\u2019s settings, but Uber found that users didn\u2019t know\u00a0how to find them \u2014 so the company is bringing the settings into the app itself.<\/p>\n

When Uber first launched its ride-hailing service, account deletion requests had to be dealt with manually. As the company grew, this strategy didn\u2019t scale. But it took a while for Uber to replace the backend functionality in order to make Dear John\u2019s\u00a0swift deletion possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The new screen users will see when they delete their accounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The problem found a spotlight in late January, when a campaign to #DeleteUber<\/a> spread across social media, encouraging users to dump Uber. #DeleteUber was a\u00a0response to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick\u2019s position on an advisory committee to President Donald Trump and Uber\u2019s perceived strike-breaking activity at JFK airport<\/a> after a protest against Trump\u2019s travel ban.<\/p>\n

Uber maintains that it wasn\u2019t trying to disrupt the airport protest \u2014 it dropped its surge pricing a half-hour after the protest ended \u2014 but the damage had\u00a0already been done. Around 500,000 people deleted their accounts, according to the New York Times<\/a>. The\u00a0social media backlash put Dear John to the test. A version of the feature was spun up overnight to keep up with the flood of requests. (Kalanick also stepped down<\/a> from the Trump advisory council.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about #DeleteUber is now people know what I do,\u201d joked Roche\u00a0Janken, one of the engineers who worked on the project. The campaign gave people a way to express their frustrations during a politically fraught moment, she added.<\/p>\n

Dear John isn\u2019t just designed to delete accounts; it\u2019s a portable feature that can be used throughout Uber to delete data, even as new kinds of data are added to Uber\u2019s systems. The idea is to make it easy for any Uber employee to build deletion into new projects, so that unnecessary data retention isn\u2019t an issue for Uber going forward.<\/p>\n

Uber\u2019s also using its new deletion process for contacts, so users who have previously uploaded their contacts in order to share their location can remove them.<\/p>\n

The app is also rolling out new privacy features related to notifications and location. Users can now opt in to the specific notifications they want to receive \u2014 whether that\u2019s ride updates or notices about discounts \u2014 and decide whether they want to get push notifications or text messages.<\/p>\n

Uber has also faced pushback over the way it handles location data. Last fall, the company removed the option to let users share their location with Uber only while using the app, forcing them to choose between \u201calways\u201d and \u201cnever.\u201d Uber said it would only track users\u2019 location for five minutes<\/a> after a ride ended, but some users remained wary about the change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Uber will make it easier for users to access their location settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The company isn\u2019t reversing its location policy, but it is trying to be more transparent with users about how it handles location information. A new screen in the app will make it easier for users to find information about location tracking, rather than hunting for it in their phone\u2019s settings. Users will also be able to choose whether or not to let friends hail a ride to their location.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of the user,\u201d engineer Is\u00a0Angieri told TechCrunch. \u201cI want to empower them to access data the way they want. I think of privacy as a form of expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear when all the new settings will become available to users. In a blog post, Uber CISO John \u201cFour\u201d Flynn wrote that the options would appear under a Privacy Settings menu over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Uber announced today that it\u00a0will make it easier for users to delete their accounts and access their privacy settings. Now, the company\u00a0will let users delete their accounts from within the app, without contacting support. The process is known internally as “Dear John,” and Uber employees said it has taken over a year to design. Once a user opts to delete their account, Uber… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-339580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}