# Apple giving Uber ‘disturbing’ powers, experts say



## Ben Hall (Apr 15, 2016)

*Apple giving Uber 'disturbing' powers, experts say*



MARK BRIDGE
The Times
5:47PM October 7, 2017

Apple has given Uber unprecedented and "disturbing" privileges that would enable the company to record customers' phone screens and access their data without their knowledge, experts have warned.

Will Strafach, a security researcher, discovered the ability in the taxi app's code, which allows Uber to access the colour data of every pixel in the phone's display, potentially viewing the screen whether or not the app was in use.

He told Gizmodo, the technology website: "It looks like no other third-party developer has been able to get Apple to grant them a private sensitive entitlement of this nature. Considering Uber's past privacy issues I am very curious how they convinced Apple to allow this."

The Open Rights Group said it was disturbing that Uber could have used the feature to access customers' personal data and information about competitors' products.

Uber said that Apple granted the permission for technical reasons two years ago, to enable people's phones to render the detail of route maps that would appear on synced Apple Watches. It said it never used the permission to spy on people's phones.

A spokesman said: "It has been dormant for quite some time. We are working with Apple to remove it completely as soon as possible."

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, threatened to remove Uber from the App Store in 2015 when it discovered that the company had found a way to tag people's phones secretly even after they had deleted the app. Uber said this was used only to prevent fraudsters from loading the app on to stolen phones, but the move broke Apple's privacy policy. The company also tried to hide what it was doing by "geofencing" Apple's headquarters so that Apple employees would not see the rogue code.

Three years ago Uber was caught using a tool nicknamed "God view" to track customers' movements in real time without their consent. It insisted that it had robust policies to prohibit staff from accessing ride data but former employees claimed recently that staff tracked celebrities and former partners.

Travis Kalanick, 41, Uber's founder, resigned as chief executive in June after it was alleged that he did little to stop a toxic, sexist working culture at the company. Last month Transport for London refused to renew Uber's licence, saying that it was not a "fit and proper" car hire operator. Uber is challenging the decision.

_- The Times_


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## prk (Jul 9, 2015)

this would seem to add weight to London transports decision to ban Uber. 
what a bunch of scumbags.
glad Ive got a Samsung.


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## Where to Mister? (Jul 16, 2017)

prk said:


> glad Ive got a Samsung.


You think that's more secure than an iPhone?
Samsung/Android don't care what the software does. They have no control.


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## UberDriverAU (Nov 4, 2015)

Where to Mister? said:


> You think that's more secure than an iPhone?
> Samsung/Android don't care what the software does. They have no control.


They have no control? Google vets every single app in the Play store.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

Ben Hall said:


> Uber said that Apple granted the permission for technical reasons two years ago, to enable people's phones to render the detail of route maps that would appear on synced Apple Watches.
> It said it never used the permission to spy on people's phones.


Well, that is certainly good enough for me! 
Why on God's earth would people doubt Über after a reassurance like that?
.


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