Uber to improve privacy, data security

SAN FRANCISCO: Ride service Uber, which is trying to enhance its image after several controversies, on Friday released the findings of a report on its handling of passenger data and said it would act on all the report’s recommendations for improvements.
Lawyers at Hogan Lovells, who wrote the report commissioned and paid for by Uber, found that the smartphone app-enabled service had appropriate guidelines and procedures in place for internal access control, data security and data retention. The report said Uber could improve privacy and data security by taking steps such as providing training for employees, making policies easier for customers to understand, and tightening access controls.
Management at the San Francisco-based company, which announced the report’s findings in a blog post, said on Friday it had already begun putting the recommendations into effect.
Uber commissioned the report in November, shortly after a dinner where a company executive raised the idea of hiring researchers to examine and disclose activities of media critics. It also emerged that Uber executives sometimes used an internal tool called “God View” to track specific customer rides, including the ride of a reporter for the news outlet Buzzfeed.